Latest Doctors News
Increased chances of autistic child's siblings developing the condition
Published On: 15th August 2011
By: Joe Elvin
Parents of a child with autism have almost a one in five chance of future children developing the condition as well, a new study has suggested.
In what has been described as the largest piece of research into recurrence of the autism, researchers from the United States concluded that there is an 18 per cent chance of those with an autistic older sibling also developing the condition. This raises to 33 per cent if a child has more than one autistic sibling.
According to The Daily Mail, the doctors news is particularly shocking because previous studies have estimated the chances of recurrence to be as low as three per cent.
Lead author Prof Sally Ozonoff argued that her study was more accurate as it was the first to follow families up to the time of diagnosis.
However, in an interview with BBC News, she pointed out that its figures were averages and that there are many non-genetic factors which could increase or lessen the chances of a family having more than one autistic child.
She said: "For some families, the risk will be greater than 18 per cent, and for other families it will be less than 18 per cent. At present we do not know how to estimate an individual family's actual risk.
"Genes is a large part of autism, but it's not the whole story. Non-genetic factors are also important, but we don't know exactly what they are."