Depression in children with autism/pervasive developmental disorders: a case-control family history study.
Autistic children with depression carry two-and-a-half times more family history of depression, proving the mood disorder is a separate, valid target for treatment.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team asked a simple question. Is depression in autistic kids a separate illness or just part of autism?
They compared two groups of autistic children. One group had depression. The other did not.
They then checked how many relatives in each group had depression. Family history can show if an illness runs in genes.
What they found
Depression was far more common in the relatives of depressed autistic kids. Seventy-seven percent of those families had depression history. Only thirty percent of the non-depressed group had the same history.
The gap stayed large even after the researchers checked for other factors. This means depression is a real, distinct condition in autistic children, not just autism looking sad.
How this fits with other research
Chen et al. (2020) extend the picture. They show that autistic traits in the same age band predict suicidal thoughts, and the link is driven by anxiety or depression. The 1998 study proved the diagnosis is real; the 2020 study shows how serious it can get.
Chan et al. (2018) flip the lens. Child autism severity raises parental depression through worry, stress and marital conflict. So family mood problems flow both ways: child depression clusters in families, and child autism stresses parents.
Adams et al. (2020) add the child’s own voice. Ninety-six percent of autistic children self-report anxiety, yet adults often miss it. Together these papers say: ask the child, ask the family, and treat internalising problems as real and risky.
Why it matters
You now have evidence to justify screening for depression in every autistic child on your caseload. When you see sad mood, low interest or irritability, do not dismiss it as “just autism.” Take a quick family history of mood disorders; a positive history strengthens your case for referral. Share these numbers with parents so they know depression is treatable and not a flaw in their child or their parenting.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Limited information is available about the occurrence of depression in children with autism and other pervasive developmental disorders (PDD). Although depression has been described in autistic children, questions about its validity have often been raised. One approach to address this issue is to investigate family histories of those autistic children diagnosed with clinical depression. Based on data available in nonautistic children, autistic children with depression would be expected to show an increased family history of depression. Since studies of this nature have not been attempted in autistic children, we compared the family history of 13 autistic/PDD children with depression (11 male; 2 female; M full-scale IQ 86.2, SD 24.2; M age 10.4 years, SD 2.2) with 10 autistic/PDD children without a history of current or previous depression (9 male; 1 female; M full-scale IQ 67, SD 12.9; M age 10.5 years, SD 1.6). Diagnosis of depression was based on the DSM-III-R criteria and confirmed independently by two psychiatrists. Ten (77%) of the depressed children had a positive family history of depression compared to 3 (30%) of the nondepressed group, t(21)=-2.4; p=.02. These findings lend support to the validity of depression as a distinct condition in some children with autism/PDD and suggest that, as in the normal population, autistic children who suffer from depression are more likely to have a family history of depression.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 1998 · doi:10.1023/a:1026036514719