Are there any studies on genetics for Aspie families?

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jennica
Tufted Titmouse
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09 Aug 2013, 8:22 pm

My 8 year old has been diagnosed with Aspergers, and Dh and I feel we are both borderline, if not diagnosable. We're not sure, but we suspect we could have been diagnosed as children or teens, but that we may not be now. I feel like every blog or family that I know of with an Aspie child has at least one, if not two borderline or Aspie parents. Are there any studies going on that we should try to get involved with that are trying to isolate the genes involved in Aspergers specifically?



aspieMD
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10 Aug 2013, 1:28 am

Funny you should ask! Just yesterday I learned about lambda s measure of predicting the genetic component of disease, and the prof touched upon autism.

Apparently, the possibility that you have an autistic sibling is 100-150x that of the general population if you have autism. Of course this may have confounding factors, such as the fact that siblings are usually raised together and were subject to similar prenatal and postnatal environments, but the prof says its a pretty good indicator.

Compare this to a typical Mendelian autosomal recessive disease with a lambda s of 1000 (Cystic Fibrosis).



jennica
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10 Aug 2013, 12:05 pm

Have you seen this new study: Source: Duffy FH, Heidelise A. A Stable Pattern Of EEG Spectral Coherence Distinguishes Children With Autism From Neuro-Typical Controls — A Large Case Control Study. BMC Medicine. 2013. (Sorry it's not letting me post a link because I'm a new member). This study indicates that Aspergers and autism and biologically distinct, which is what I have suspected all along. And if they are, then different genes would be responsible. And anecdotally, Aspergers would seem to be more inheritable than other forms of autism. So, I was wondering if anyone knew of anyone doing research to isolate the specific genes responsible, since it seems to run in families.