Elsevier

Psychiatry Research

Volume 149, Issues 1–3, 15 January 2007, Pages 321-324
Psychiatry Research

Brief report
Hypercholesterolemia in Asperger syndrome: Independence from lifestyle, obsessive–compulsive behavior, and social anxiety

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2006.02.003Get rights and content

Abstract

We report on elevated total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) levels in 22 individuals with Asperger syndrome compared with well-matched controls, after accounting for lifestyle variables and clinical symptomatology that could affect them. A potential role for dyslipidemia in the pathogenesis of some forms of autism is discussed.

Introduction

Asperger syndrome (AS) is a neurodevelopmental disorder belonging to the autism spectrum. It is characterized by impairments in socialization and ritualistic and stereotypic behaviors. While its etiology remains unknown, genetic and early developmental factors are considered key.

Several studies in recent years have reported abnormalities in lipid profiles in psychiatric disorders such as depression (Huang et al., 2003), bulimia nervosa (Monteleone et al., 2005), and generalized anxiety disorder (Sevincok et al., 2001). Interestingly, elevations in cholesterol levels have also been reported in conditions that share clinical features with AS, such as obsessive–compulsive disorder (e.g. Peter et al., 2002) and social anxiety (Landen et al., 2004).

In this study we contrasted for the first time lipid profiles of individuals with AS with those of well-matched control subjects. We also sought to examine if potential group differences could be explained by social anxiety and obsessive–compulsive behavior.

Section snippets

Methods

We analyzed data from 22 patients with AS and 22 healthy controls matched for age, gender, body mass index (BMI), and education, who were part of a study on AS and social cognition. AS individuals were recruited through local AS support groups or were referred by specialized clinicians. Diagnoses were confirmed for all AS participants according to DSM-IV AS criteria, and clinical symptoms of autism were assessed with the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R) in 16 subjects with available

Results

All variables were tested for normal distribution with the Kolmogorov–Smirnov test. To ascertain between-group differences, only variables that displayed normal distribution were studied with independent sample two-tailed t-tests. Data that were either not normally distributed or categorical were analyzed by Mann–Whitney U-tests or Fisher's exact test, respectively. Statistical analyses revealed no significant group differences in age, gender, education, intellectual functioning, BMI, smoking,

Discussion

To our knowledge, this is the first study on lipid profiles in psychiatric disease that has ruled out the confounding influence of diet, exercise, medication, and smoking. We found elevated levels of total cholesterol, LDL, and triglycerides, and significantly lower levels of HDL in patients with Asperger syndrome relative to healthy controls. Literature has described modifying effects of exercise on HDL and TG (e.g. Durstine et al., 2002). Therefore, given that we had a trend for exercise to

Acknowledgments

The study was funded by a grant from the National Alliance for Autism Research (NAAR) to Antonio Convit and support from the NYU General Clinical Research Center (NCRR M01 RR00096). Isabel Dziobek was in part supported by the Cusanuswerk and Stefan Gold by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (GO 1357/1-1).

References (21)

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