The Web address of this article is
http://sfhelp.org/parent/news/autism.htm
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This Swedish research study illustrates a possible tie between parental
"mental illness" and
autism in kids. This suggests that
parents' psychological
may harm the next generations, which is the central
premise of this nonprofit educational Web site.
See my comments after the article for more perspective. The links and hilights below
are mine.
-
Peter Gerlach, MSW
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In another sign pointing to an
inherited component to autism, a study released on Monday found that having
a schizophrenic parent or a mother with psychiatric problems roughly doubled
a child's risk of being autistic.
"Our research shows that
mothers and fathers diagnosed with schizophrenia
were about twice as likely to have a child diagnosed with autism," said
Julie Daniels of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, who worked
on the study.
"We also saw higher rates of depression and personality disorders among
mothers, but not fathers," she said in a statement.
The study of families in Sweden with children born between 1977 and 2003
involved 1,227 children diagno-sed with autism. They were compared with
families of nearly 31,000 children who did not have autism. Sweden's
detailed health registry provides a wealth of data for such studies.
Autism, which is marked by impaired social interaction and communication, or
a related disorder like Asperger's syndrome,
affects an estimated one out of
every 150 U.S. children, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
estimates. Asperger's is marked by mild social awkwardness.
No one knows what causes autism, but researchers think it is likely that
several genes and possibly environmental factors contribute. Some autism
advocates believe childhood vaccinations play a role, although most medical
experts say it is extremely unlikely.
Which genes lie behind various mental illnesses are also poorly understood,
according to the research-ers, whose study appeared in the journal
Pediatrics, published by the
American Academy of Pediatrics.
"Earlier studies have shown a higher rate of psychiatric disorders in
families of autistic children than in the general population," Daniels said.
The association between a child's autism and mental illness in the parent
was strongest with schizophre-nia, and was less powerful when the mother
suffered from depression or personality disorders. There was little
association between autism and parental addiction to alcohol or drugs or
some other types of mental illness.
It was not clear if it was significant that having a mother, but not a
father, with certain mental illnesses, raised the risk of autism.
"Establishing an association between autism and other psychiatric disorders
might enable future investi-gators to better focus on genetic and
environmental factors that might be shared among these disorders," Daniels
said.
Copyright © 2008 Reuters
Limited.
Copyright © 2008 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.
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Comments
Key terms in this research summary are "mental illness" and "psychiatric
illness." Without defining these terms, no compelling link
between them and autism or Asperger's syndrome is possible.
If
(a) there is a
cause-effect relationship between maternal schizophrenia and childhood
autism, and if (b) schizophrenia may be promoted by psychological and genetic
factors, then legislators and voters should be interested in discussing some
enforceable standard for child conception and parents' wholistic health.
This can't happen until our electorate and law-makers want to learn
more about the short and long-term effects of
childcare on
typical minor children.
This research-based Web site proposes that some (or many?) forms of "mental
illness" indicate surviving significantly-wounded, unaware caregivers and a
low-nurturance childhood. It appears that these
- amplified by
unawareness - can promote many forms of "mental illness." Much research is
needed to validate this premise.
For more perspective, see...
-
these Lesson-1
research summaries;
-
these introductions to normal personality
subselves
subselves and "false-self" wounds
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this introduction to
inner-family therapy ("parts work"), and/or...
-
The
guidebook
by Peter K. Gerlach, MSW; for
assessing and reducing psychological wounds: Who's Really Running Your Life?
(Xlibris.com, 2011; 4th ed.):
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