New Delhi, May 29 (IANS) People with autism could be at a higher risk of developing Parkinson’s disease early in life, according to a large-scale study that showed similar underlying biological mechanisms of the conditions.

Researchers from the Karolinska Institutet questioned a possible connection between the neuropsychiatric diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), which affects an individual’s thought processes, behaviour, and interpersonal communication, and early-onset Parkinson’s disease — a condition that affects locomotion and movement.

The results, published in JAMA Neurology, show that people with an autism diagnosis were four times more likely to develop Parkinson’s disease than people without such a diagnosis.

The correlation between the conditions remained even when controlling for socioeconomic status — a genetic predisposition for mental illness or Parkinson’s disease and other such factors, said the researchers, who suspect the role of dopamine.

“This indicates that there can be shared biological drivers behind ASD and Parkinson’s disease,” said Weiyao Yin, researcher at the Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet.

“One hypothesis is that the brain’s dopamine system is affected in both cases, since the neurotransmitter dopamine plays an important part in social behavior and motion control,” Yin added.

The study is based on registry data from over two million people born in Sweden between 1974 and 1999, who were followed from the age of 20 up to the end of 2022.

It is well-known that dopamine-producing neurons are degraded in Parkinson’s disease.

Previous studies have also shown that dopamine is possibly implicated in autism, but more research needs to be done to confirm this.

“We hope that our results will eventually help to bring greater clarity to the underlying causes of both ASD and Parkinson’s disease,” Yin said.

Calling for more studies, the researchers urged healthcare services to keep people with ASD — a vulnerable group with high co-morbidity and high use of psychotropics — under long-term observation.

–IANS

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