Lectures and seminars MEB seminar: Cardiometabolic Conditions in Autism

Title 

Cardiometabolic Conditions in Autism

Speaker

Professor Diana Schendel, Aarhus University, NCRR

Prof. Schendel will be the faculty opponent at the PhD thesis defense of Aleksandra Kanina, from the Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Friday April 4th, 2025, at 1:00 PM in Atrium Hall, Karolinska Institutet.

Abstract

Autism is a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by disabilities in social communication and restricted, repetitive behaviors and interests. Features of autism can be detected very early in life, although it is generally considered a lifetime disability and often with a complex profile of co-occurring conditions over the life-course. It has a multifactorial etiology although specific factors that increase the likelihood that a person will be autistic are not fully understood. Also uncertain are the contributing factors underlying the co-occurrence of specific conditions with autism over the life-course. Interestingly, certain types of conditions seem to ‘follow’ autism – serving both as a condition in the family or a prenatal maternal condition posing an elevated risk for an autism diagnosis in the offspring, as well as having an elevated co-occurrence with autism over the life course. Likely the most common class of such conditions are other mental and neurodevelopmental conditions, although cardiometabolic conditions (CMCs) also ‘follow’ autism. The presentation will illustrate the scope of these ‘multi-generation cross-disorder’ associations between CMCs and autism, some of the underlying genetic and non-genetic factors which have been explored in different scenarios, and possible directions for future research.