Is There a Link Between PTSD and Autistic Disorders – A Description Based on Steroid Hormones

Abstract

Autism is described as pervasive development disorder. In the DSM-5, Autistic Disorder, Asperger’s Disorder and PDD-NOS are replaced by the diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder [1]. Autism spectrum disorders are generally characterized as difficulties in communication and social interaction as well as special behavior such as retaining routines and insisting on sameness or special interests [1]. Interestingly, newer findings from Switzerland imply, that there is a link between socioeconomic factors and autism spectrum disorders [2]. Already in the first work by Hans Asperger [3] it was described that some children were from one child families and it was implied that the manner and kind of parents were predisposing factors for this disorder. However, also newest analyzes from Switzerland imply that very often children with a diagnosis of Autism have an immigrational or a foreign background yielding to a possible similarity with post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD) [2]. It was shown for the area of Zürich (the biggest city in Switzerland) in a cohort of 147 children with a typical relationship of boys to girls that concerning communicational skills, interestingly in 53% more than one language was spoken at home affecting behavior in general and especially communicational skills (mean 1.6 languages) [2-4]. In this cohort the share of families with immigrational background was clearly increased and only in 13% of the families German (the local language) was mothers’ language of the children, whereby these findings are in line with others [2,5,6]. However, situation differs from region to region in Switzerland and from a therapeutic point of view it was several times mentioned that schoolish setting is secondary, however more important are adequately educated caregivers [2,7-9]. Evidence acquisition