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mohammadijahromi L, inaloo S, raeesi H. Prevalence of Autism among Epileptic Children Referring to Imam Reza Clinic and Comparing to Control Group (non Epileptic Children) During2013-2014. JSSU 2017; 25 (3) :162-170
URL: http://jssu.ssu.ac.ir/article-1-3583-en.html

Introduction: The relationship between autism and epilepsy is definitely reported. The prevalence of autism among epileptic children is definitely higher than non-epileptic cases. The purpose of this investigation was to diagnose autism among epileptic children earlier and comparing them with non-epileptic children as well as investigating risk factors, which increased autism among them.
Methods: In this case control study, 2 questionnaires were applied; one of them was related to the features of autism and seizure, which was filled for 160 epileptic children between 4-16 years old referring to pediatric neurologic unit in Emam Reza's Clinic in Shiraz. The other questionnaire was the autism screening questionnaire, which was also filled for 160 non epileptic children referring to other pediatric units in that clinic as the control group. This questionnaire was based on DSM-IV-TR criteria and every suspicious child for autism was confirmed or refused by neurologist and psychiatrist.
Result: 12 children among 160 epileptic cases were diagnosed as autistic patients. However, no autistic child was diagnosed in the control group that this difference was statistically significant.  Furthermore, there was a significant correlation between the prevalence of autism and the age of seizure onset, as well as the findings of CT and MRI and the etiology of the seizure, but there were not any significant correlations with other variables of seizure.
Discussion: According to this study, the prevalence of autism among epileptic children is higher than non epileptic ones. As the age of the onset of seizure is lower the prevalence of autism will be higher. Also, the prevalence of autism among epileptic children will be higher as abnormal findings of imaging and known etiologies of seizureincrease. Loss of significant correlations among prevalence of autism and some variables of seizure can be due to few numbers of autistic cases, which were diagnosed in this study comparing with previous studies.