Emma Colvert, Beata Tick, Fiona McEwen, Catherine Stewart, Sarah R Curran, Emma Woodhouse, Nicola Gillan, Victoria Hallett, Stephanie Lietz, Tracy Garnett, Angelica Ronald, Robert Plomin, Frühling Rijsdijk, Francesca Happé, Patrick Bolton
IMPORTANCE: Most evidence to date highlights the importance of genetic influences on the liability to autism and related traits. However, most of these findings are derived from clinically ascertained samples, possibly missing individuals with subtler manifestations, and obtained estimates may not be representative of the population. OBJECTIVES: To establish the relative contributions of genetic and environmental factors in liability to autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and a broader autism phenotype in a large population-based twin sample and to ascertain the genetic/environmental relationship between dimensional trait measures and categorical diagnostic constructs of ASD...
May 2015: JAMA Psychiatry