Autism and Parkinson鈥檚 Disease: An Unexpected Overlap
In this article, Professor Bhismadev Chakrabarti, Visiting Professor of Psychology, 51茶馆, talks about his recently published research paper Elevated autistic features in Parkinson鈥檚 disease and other motor disorders. The research article underlines how, despite appearing at different stages of life, both autism and Parkinson鈥檚 disease have an intriguing overlap.
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Overview:
As the title suggests, Professor Chakrabarti examines the underlying overlap between Autism and Parkinson’s disease. While these two diseases manifest at opposite ends of the lifespan, Professor Chakrabarti underlines the following:
Autism is a group of neurodevelopmental conditions that appear early in life and persist throughout the lifespan. These conditions are often linked to challenges in sensory reactivity, social-emotional behaviour, and repetitive actions. In contrast, Parkinson鈥檚 Disease typically emerges later in life and is associated with progressively debilitating difficulties in movement and daily activities. Although these conditions occur at different stages of life, growing evidence points to an intriguing overlap.
For instance, autistic individuals are three times more likely than non-autistic people to develop Parkinson鈥檚 Disease in later life – a finding replicated across multiple countries. However, it remains unclear whether autism is correspondingly more common among people with Parkinson鈥檚 Disease. What about autistic patterns of thought and behaviour in Parkinson鈥檚 patients without an autism diagnosis? Asking these questions helps us test whether this unexpected overlap operates in both directions.
Approach:
To address the same, Professor Chakrabarti and his research collaborators at the India Autism Centre surveyed autistic traits in 330 older adults divided into three equal groups: (i) Parkinson鈥檚 Disease patients, (ii) patients with other neurological movement disorders (but no Parkinsonism), and (iii) an age-matched control group without any neurological or movement disorder.
Talking about the scale of the study, Professor Chakrabarti shares, 鈥淭his was the largest study to date on this question, and it also involved a former Ashoka student (Swarnima Pathak) joining a group of researchers and clinicians to test participants over a year within the precincts of a busy neurology hospital (Institute of Neurosciences, Kolkata).鈥�
Results:
The researchers found that people with Parkinson’s Disease and those with other motor disorders had higher autistic traits than controls. While it answered their initial question, it also revealed that the non-Parkinsonian motor disorder group showed elevated autistic traits compared to controls. Thus, the higher prevalence of autistic features was not limited to Parkinson鈥檚 Disease.
As the team explored sex differences, another unexpected finding emerged:
- Men with Parkinson鈥檚 Disease had more autistic traits than men with non-Parkinsonian motor disorders, who in turn scored higher than controls.
- In contrast, women with Parkinson鈥檚 or other motor disorders did not differ from women without motor disorders.
The survey was conducted in three languages – Bengali, English, and Hindi, and results were analysed separately for each language. The same pattern appeared across languages, regardless of whether participants or caregivers completed the surveys. This observation may reflect one or both of two factors:聽
(i) sex-specific manifestation of common factors increasing the likelihood of both autism and Parkinson鈥檚 Disease.
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(ii) differences in how men and women interpret survey items.
Conclusion:
Taken together with existing literature, these findings suggest that shared genetic or biological factors may increase the likelihood of features of both conditions. However, this overlap may not be unique to Parkinson鈥檚 Disease and could extend to other motor disorders, such as essential tremor. Conversely, Parkinson鈥檚 Disease may not be the only motor disorder for which autistic individuals face heightened risk.
Moreover, the overlap appears more pronounced in males than females, reinforcing the emerging view of sex-specific manifestations of common conditions and the need for sex-stratified care pathways. In sum, our results highlight the importance of assessing autistic traits as part of care planning for people with Parkinson鈥檚 Disease or other motor disorders.
– Edited by Priyanka, Sr Manager Communications – Office of Research and Development, 51茶馆
This blog has been adapted from the original research article, available .
