siblings – ASF Weekly Science Podcasts

This week a 5 country collaboration including the largest number of people EVER revealed 80% of the causes of autism are heritable. This is incredibly important to understand autism and move forward with research that matters to families.  What it did not do was calculate the role of gene x environment interactions which seems to be the forgotten stepchild of autism research.  This week’s #ASFpodcast explains why it is important to understand the heritability while at the same time study the combined effects of genetic and environmental factors.

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/fullarticle/2737582?guestAccessKey=d82b0145-f179-48bd-91bb-f77865732c3c&utm_source=For_The_Media&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ftm_links&utm_content=tfl&utm_term=071719 

Don’t be fooled, not all the studies on this week’s podcast focus on the DSM5.  But the first one, a review of a meta analysis and review of the dozens of publications that have emerged in the past 5 years around the DSM5 leads us off.  There are some people that weren’t captured by either DSM5 or Social Communication Disorder that need a diagnosis, and that should be the focus of future research.  A new topic of diagnosis is also explored by a large collaboration is addressed:  diagnosis in cousins.  They do show a higher probability of an autism diagnosis, but not as high as first degree siblings.  Finally, a new tool called JAKE in monitoring  treatment effectiveness is presented.  This could be used not just in the clinic but at home.  It includes monitoring of biological and behavioral features, and might be the next big thing in outcomes for treatment studies.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30852784

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30851399

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6402449/