SynthesisJournal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines2016
Heritability of autism spectrum disorders: a meta-analysis of twin studies.
Synthesis in Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 539 papers, 10 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
539 citing papers in PubMed, 10 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Efficacy of pharmacological and microbiota-based therapies in preclinical models of autism spectrum disorder: a systematic review.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Pooled it
- Social functioning in autism: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Nature human behaviour · 2026Pooled it
- Systematic review of measures and interventions for caregiver adjustment to child autism diagnosis.Autism : the international journal of research and practice · 2026Pooled it
- Maternal rheumatoid arthritis and the risk of offspring autism spectrum disorder: two national birth cohorts and a meta-analysis.Molecular autism · 2025Pooled it
- The Association Between Maternal Asthma and Child Autism: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research · 2025Pooled it
- Animal studies reveal downregulation of the Beclin-1 autophagy pathway as shared mechanism in Autism Spectrum Disorder: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Molecular psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- Presymptomatic Biological, Structural, and Functional Diagnostic Biomarkers of Autism Spectrum Disorder.Journal of neurochemistry · 2025Pooled it
- Metal Dyshomeostasis as a Driver of Gut Pathology in Autism Spectrum Disorders.Journal of neurochemistry · 2025Pooled it
- Global autism prevalence, and exploring Montessori as a practical educational solution: a systematic review.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- Bridging Genetic Insights with Neuroimaging in Autism Spectrum Disorder-A Systematic Review.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Pooled it
- Fish oil-derived fatty acids during pregnancy and risk of neurodevelopmental disorders in children at age 10 - A randomized controlled trial.Translational psychiatry · 2026Trial
- Disentangling direct and indirect genetic pathways to neurodevelopmental risk: brain structure and behavior in a population-based parent-offspring trio study.Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines · 2026Article
- Multivariate genetic analyses test for the presence of a general 'JCPP advances · 2026Article
- A Critical Synthesis of Machine Learning in Autism Spectrum Disorder Genomic Research: From Transcriptomics to Microbiome.Medeniyet medical journal · 2026Article
- Assessing Swedish genetic counselling outcome measures for autism and general use: Rasch findings highlight the need for improved measures.BMC psychology · 2026Article
- Air pollution and autism-like traits: Sensitive periods and joint effects of exposure to sources and constituents of fine particulate matter.Environmental research · 2026Article
- Common genetic variants are associated with increased likelihood of latent co-occurring neurodevelopmental and mental health factors among autistic individuals.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- Genetic overlap and shared risk loci between autism spectrum disorder and cardiometabolic traits.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- Association of cumulative early medical events and neurodevelopmental conditions through a common latent factor-A population-based twin study.JCPP advances · 2026Article
- Sleep in Young Children With Autism, ADHD and Combined Presentations.Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research · 2026Article
479 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThe etiology of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) has been recently debated due to emerging findings on the importance of shared environmental influences. However, two recent twin studies do not support this and instead re-affirm strong genetic effects on the liability to ASD, a finding consistent with previous reports. This study conducts a systematic review and meta-analysis of all twin studies of ASD published to date and explores the etiology along the continuum of a quantitative measure of ASD.
methodsA PubMed Central, Science Direct, Google Scholar, Web of Knowledge structured search conducted online, to identify all twin studies on ASD published to date. Thirteen primary twin studies were identified, seven were included in the meta-analysis by meeting Systematic Recruitment criterion; correction for selection and ascertainment strategies, and applied prevalences were assessed for these studies. In addition, a quantile DF extremes analysis was carried out on Childhood Autism Spectrum Test scores measured in a population sample of 6,413 twin pairs including affected twins.
resultsThe meta-analysis correlations for monozygotic twins (MZ) were almost perfect at .98 (95% Confidence Interval, .96-.99). The dizygotic (DZ) correlation, however, was .53 (95% CI .44-.60) when ASD prevalence rate was set at 5% (in line with the Broad Phenotype of ASD) and increased to .67 (95% CI .61-.72) when applying a prevalence rate of 1%. The meta-analytic heritability estimates were substantial: 64-91%. Shared environmental effects became significant as the prevalence rate decreased from 5-1%: 07-35%. The DF analyses show that for the most part, there is no departure from linearity in heritability.
conclusionsWe demonstrate that: (a) ASD is due to strong genetic effects; (b) shared environmental effects become significant as a function of lower prevalence rate; (c) previously reported significant shared environmental influences are likely a statistical artefact of overinclusion of concordant DZ twins.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.