We found that mothers of children with ASD had substantially greater prevalence of PTSD symptoms than mothers of children without ASD. Regardless of the mechanisms driving the association of maternal PTSD with child’s ASD, clinicians treating children with ASD should screen parents for PTSD, depression and other mental health symptoms that could be treated to improve family functioning (; ; ; ). Additionally, parents of children with ASD should be alerted that they may be at risk of PTSD and depressive symptoms, so that they can receive prompt treatment should symptoms arise. Several treatments are effective for PTSD, include eye-movement desensitization and reprocessing, cognitive-behavioral therapy (), psychopharmacotherapy, and psychodynamic therapy (; ). If untreated, PTSD has potentially severe physical and mental health sequelae, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and chronic fatigue syndrome (; ; ). Thus, screening and treatment for PTSD and other disorders is likely to be an effective way to improve the health of this vulnerable population. Additionally, genetic studies of ASD should consider PTSD risk alleles in ASD etiology. Further prospective longitudinal research is needed to elucidate the factors driving associations between maternal PTSD and ASD in children.
We found that mothers of children with ASD had substantially greater prevalence of PTSD symptoms than mothers of children without ASD. Regardless of the mechanisms driving the association of maternal PTSD with child’s ASD, clinicians treating children with ASD should screen parents for PTSD, depression and other mental health symptoms that could be treated to improve family functioning (; ; ; ). Additionally, parents of children with ASD should be alerted that they may be at risk of PTSD and depressive symptoms, so that they can receive prompt treatment should symptoms arise. Several treatments are effective for PTSD, include eye-movement desensitization and reprocessing, cognitive-behavioral therapy (), psychopharmacotherapy, and psychodynamic therapy (; ). If untreated, PTSD has potentially severe physical and mental health sequelae, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and chronic fatigue syndrome (; ; ). Thus, screening and treatment for PTSD and other disorders is likely to be an effective way to improve the health of this vulnerable population. Additionally, genetic studies of ASD should consider PTSD risk alleles in ASD etiology. Further prospective longitudinal research is needed to elucidate the factors driving associations between maternal PTSD and ASD in children.