Having a child with autism doesn’t put stress on parents” marriage: Study

May 20, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Washington, May 20 (ANI): A new study has debunked the myth that having a child with autism can put stress on the parents” marriage.

The study by researchers from Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore found that a child”s autism has no effect on the family structure.

Brian Freedman, lead author of the study and clinical director of the Center for Autism and Related Disorders at Kennedy Krieger Institute, found that 64 percent of children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) belong to a family with two married biological or adoptive parents, compared with 65 percent of children who do not have an ASD.

“In the work I”ve done with children with autism, I”ve come across many couples who quote this 80 percent divorce rate to me. They don”t know what the future holds for their child, and feel a sense of hopelessness about the future of their marriage as well – almost like getting a diagnosis of autism and a diagnosis of divorce at the same time,” he said.

Researchers sought to examine the incidence more scientifically. Using data from the 2007 National Survey of Children”s Health*, they examined a nationally representative sample of 77,911 children, ages 3 to 17.

Freedman said that their studies found that families with autistic children reported more stress than say, mothers with growing children or children who had other disabilities like Down syndrome.

“While there are indeed stressors in parenting a child with autism, it doesn”t necessarily result in the family breaking up more often than would occur in another family,” said Dr. Freedman. “And as someone who works with a team of health care professionals to treat and provide support for families of children with autism, it”s important for us to make sure our patients” parents know that, and for our fellow clinicians to provide reliable, evidence-based information about the divorce rate among this population as well.”

“I would hope this research drives home the importance of providing support to these families, and letting them know that their relationships can survive these stressors,” he said. “We should continue to provide training for parents so that they can work through the stressors in their relationship to keep their family together and have a successful marriage.”

Results of the study will be presented in Philadelphia at the International Meeting for Autism Research. (ANI)

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Two new genes linked to autism

May 3, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Washington, May 3 (ANI): Scientists have identified two additional genes that may be associated with autism.

Study co-author Ning Lei, a researcher at Princeton University and the Institute for Advanced Studies, said that there is no known cause of autism, but mutations of several genes have been linked to autism.

For the study, Dr. Lei and her colleagues analyzed data from the Autism Genetic Resource Exchange (AGRE) on 943 families, most of whom had more than one child diagnosed with autism and had undergone genetic testing.

The researchers compared the prevalence of 25 gene mutations in the AGRE families with a control group of 6,317 individuals without developmental or neuropsychiatric illness.

The researchers identified mutations in four genes within the AGRE families. Two of the genes previously were shown to be associated with autism and often are involved in forming or maintaining neural synapses — the point of connection between individual neurons.

One of the new genes identified was neural cell adhesion molecule 2 (NCAM2). NCAM2 is expressed in the hippocampus of the human brain — a region previously associated with autism.

“While mutations in the NCAM2 gene were found in a small percentage of the children that we studied, it is fascinating that this finding continues a consistent story — that many of the genes associated with autism are involved with formation or function of the neural synapse. Studies such as this provide evidence that autism is a genetically based disease that affects neural connectivity,” Dr. Lei said.

The researchers hypothesize that a substantial percentage of children with autism will be shown to have a mutation in one or more of the many genes necessary for normal function of the synapse.

The study also showed that some parents and siblings of children with autism have the NCAM2 mutation but do not have the disorder themselves.

This suggests that other environmental or genetic factors are involved in causing autism in susceptible individuals.

“These results help the public understand that autism is a very complex disorder, much like cancer and no single gene or gene environment is likely to be causative in most cases,” Dr. Lei said.

The findings have been presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) annual meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. (ANI)

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Gene linked to autism risk identified

May 20, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, May 20 (ANI): A new study from University of California, Los Angeles has identified a genetic variant that may increase a child’s risk of developing autism, particularly boys.

The research team has discovered a variant of a gene called CACNA1G that, according to the researchers, that makes boys four times more likely to develop autism, than girls.

“This is a strong finding,” said Dr. Stanley Nelson, professor of human genetics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

“No one has scrutinized the role that CACNA1G plays in autism.

“We found that a common form of the gene occurs more frequently in the DNA of families that have two or more sons affected by autism, but no affected daughters.

“Our study may explain why boys are more susceptible to the disorder than girls,” he added.

Researchers zeroed in on a region of Chromosome 17 that previous studies have tied to autism.

They scoured the DNA of 1,046 members of families with at least two sons affected by autism for common gene variants and identified genetic markers to CACNA1G, which helps move calcium between the cells.

They discovered that the gene has a common variant that appears in the DNA of nearly 40 percent of the population.

“This alternate form of CACNA1G consistently increased the correlation to autism spectrum disorder, suggesting that inheriting the gene may heighten a child’s risk of developing autism,” said Nelson.

“This variant is a single piece of the puzzle. We need a larger sample size to identify all of the genes involved in autism and to solve the whole puzzle of this disease,” he added.

The study appears in journal Molecular Psychiatry. (ANI)

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