Are Schizophrenia and Autism related? That is the question left on the minds of some parents and scientists. Now it’s the question left on my mind.
Several months ago my 11 year old son started having hallucinations. His hallucinations present as visual, auditory, and tactile. It’s become the ultimate trifecta of confusion and misery for him. His doctors are working on figuring out what is going on and how to handle it; however much like with everything else concerning Autism- the answers just aren’t coming fast enough for me. The only solutions I have now is to do the research myself. What I found has left me a little bit shocked. You see, when my son was diagnosed with autism I never considered the comorbidities that can come along with an Autism diagnosis; likewise, once I did consider the comorbid disorders there was one that never crossed my mind: Schizophrenia. Nothing was ever said to me about Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDD) and Child Onset Schizophrenia (COS) being related in anyway. Nope, I had to learn about that via google scholar.
The Studies concerning Autism and Schizophrenia
Child Onset Schizophrenia (the onset of psychosis before age 13) and Autism have been regarded as both related and unrelated over the years. To put it as the doctors at the Seattle Children’s Hospital put it: “These disorders have at various times been regarded alternatively as closely related and as non-overlapping and incompatible.” So, which is right? Are they related or unrelated? After doing my research it seems to me that the two disorders are more alike than different in some ways and in others they couldn’t be any more unalike. Let’s find out what you think.
According to Judith Rapoport, M.D., Alex Chavez, B.S., Deanna Greenstein, Ph.D., Anjene Addington, Ph.D., Nitin Gogtay, M.D. [all of the National Institute of Mental Health] “Epidemiological and family studies find association between the disorders [Schizophrenia and Autism].” Epidemiological studies are actually often considered to be the cornerstone of public health. To have a study such as this come back positive for a correlation is mind-boggling to me. Their finding also show that 30-50% of PDD cases also have a comorbid diagnosis of schizophrenia by maturity.
http://www.emaxhealth.com/12577/autism-and-schizophrenia-there-connection