AI Summary
The article discusses a study conducted by Penn State researchers on predicting neurodevelopmental disorders in children. The study suggests that evaluating parents for traits of these disorders provides a more accurate way to predict the prevalence and potential severity of the disorders in their children. It is believed that genetic variants transmitted by parents could contribute to more severe disease and may not be picked up in routine genetic screening. Understanding how both parents contribute to their child's diagnosis could inform genetic counseling and the development of therapeutic intervention plans. The study analyzed 97,000 families, many of which included children with neurodevelopmental disorders.
Predicting the trajectory of neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders like autism or schizophrenia is difficult because they can be influenced by many different genetic and environmental factors. A new study, led by Penn State researchers, demonstrates that evaluating parents for their manifestation of traits of these disorders -; and related diseases like depression and anxiety -; may provide a more accurate method of predicting the prevalence, and potentially severity, of the disorders in affected children than screening for genetic variants alone. This is likely due, at least in part, to genetic variants the parents transmit to the child that would not be routinely picked up in a genetic screen and lead to more severe disease, the researchers explained.
A paper describing the research appeared in the American Journal of Human Genetics. According to the researchers, understanding how both parents contribute to their child’s diagnosis could inform genetic counseling and the development of therapeutic intervention plans for children impacted by these disorders.
We looked at the presence of neurodevelopmental and psychiatric traits in children and parents from a large set of families. We saw an increase in the presence of neurodevelopmental disorders in children whose parents both report having the trait, including psychiatric traits like anxiety or depression.”
Santhosh Girirajan, interim department head and T. Ming Chu Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in the Penn State Eberly College of Science and lead author of the paper
The team looked at 97,000 families, many including children with neurodevelopmental disorders