In another sign pointing to the fact that autism is almost certainly a Th1 disease, a study released on last week found that having a schizophrenic parent or a mother with psychiatric problems roughly doubled a child’s risk of becoming autistic.

“Our research shows that mothers and fathers diagnosed with schizophrenia were about twice as likely to have a child diagnosed with autism,” said Julie Daniels of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, who worked on the study. The teams research has also been confirmed by earlier studies on the same topic.

“We also saw higher rates of depression and personality disorders among mothers, but not fathers,” she said in a statement.

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A few days ago, I was glad to read the following study which supports the hypothesis I plan to present at the upcoming Days of Molecular Medicine Conference in Sweden.

In a study published this month in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, researchers at the University of Salt Lake City in Utah, reported that although boys with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) appear to be more impulsive and troubled than their female counterparts, in adulthood the condition seems to have more impact in women than in men.

“We found that adult women with ADHD frequently have high levels of emotional symptoms as well as the cognitive problems found in ADHD,” Dr. Frederick W. Reimherr, head of the study, told Reuters Health.