Mayo Clinic Study Finds Autism Far More Common in Children With Epilepsy

Overview

• The peer‑reviewed analysis, published Wednesday in Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology, found autism in 21.4% of children with epilepsy versus 3.2% without using broad criteria, 14.0% versus 1.6% with strict criteria, and 7.9% versus 0.7% for clinical diagnoses.
• Researchers reviewed records for 30,490 children in Olmsted County, Minnesota, identifying 257 with epilepsy before age 19.
• Among children with epilepsy, those with autism were more likely to have intellectual disability (56.5% versus 15.4%), were identified earlier (mean 7.4 versus 8.7 years), and included a higher share of girls (38.2% versus 25.8%).
• The authors report that autism risk in pediatric epilepsy is often recognized late and they urge routine screening to enable earlier diagnosis and timely support.
• The single‑county cohort and modest number of epilepsy cases limit how widely the estimates apply, so the researchers recommend replication and attention to how prevalence shifts with different diagnostic definitions.