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Reunifying autism and early-onset schizophrenia in terms of social communication disorders

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 June 2008

Sylvie Tordjman
Affiliation:
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Rennes 1 and Laboratoire de Psychologie de la Perception, CNRS FRE 2929, University of Paris 5, France. s.tordjman@ch-guillaumeregnier.fr

Abstract

Autism and early-onset schizophrenia share common dimensions of social communication deficits. The possible role of common genetic factors has to be seriously considered, such as the serotonin transporter gene that influences the severity of social communication impairments (negative symptoms) and hallucinations (positive symptoms). Autism and the negative syndrome of schizophrenia might be at one extreme of a continuum, and paranoid schizophrenia (positive symptoms) at the other extreme.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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