Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T21:31:31.772Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Identical Triplets with Asperger's Syndrome

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Eyrena Burgoine  and
Lorna Wing
Eyrena Burgoine
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, The London Hospital, Whitechapel, London, E1 1BB
Lorna Wing
Affiliation:
MRC Social Psychiatry Unit, Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, London, SE5 8AF
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

The case histories are presented of three 17 year old identical male triplets with Asperger's syndrome. They show the impairments affecting social interaction, non-verbal communication and imagination, the motor clumsiness, and the circumscribed interests characteristic of that condition. They also have some features in their history and present behaviour more typical of childhood autism. Despite marked overall similarities, the three differ in the severity with which their problems are manifested. A relationship can be found between the amount of peri- and post-natal trauma, degree of intellectual impairment and number of autistic features. The findings support the hypothesis that autism and Asperger's syndrome are on the same continuum of pathology.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 143 , Issue 3 , September 1983 , pp. 261 - 265
Copyright
Copyright © 1983 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Asperger, H. (1944) Die ‘autistischen Psychopathen’ im Kindesalter. Archiv fur Psychiatric und Nervenkrankheiten, 117, 76–136.Google Scholar
Bosch, G. (1962) Infantile Autism (trans. Jordan, D. and Jordan, I.). New York (1970): Springer-Verlag.Google Scholar
Emery, A. E. H. (1976) Methodology in Medical Genetics. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone.Google Scholar
Folstein, S. & Rutter, M. (1977) Infantile autism: a genetic study of twin pairs. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 18, 297–322.Google Scholar
Gillberg, C. (1983) Identical triplets with infantile autism and the fragile X syndrome. British Journal of Psychiatry, 143, 000–000.Google Scholar
Kanner, L. (1943) Autistic disturbances of affective contact. Nervous Child, 2, 217–50.Google Scholar
Lockyer, L. & Rotter, M. (1969) A five to fifteen year follow-up study of infantile psychosis: III Psychological aspects. British Journal of Psychiatry, 115, 865–82.Google Scholar
Mattei, J. G., Mattei, M. G., Aumeras, C., Auger, M. & Giraud, F. (1981) X-linked mental retardation with the fragile X. A study of 15 families. Human Genetics, 59, 281–9.Google Scholar
Mnukhin, S. S. & Isaev, D. N. (1975) On the organic nature of some forms of schizoid or autistic psychopathy. Journal of Autism and Childhood Schizophrenia, 5, 99–108.Google Scholar
Van Krevelen, D. A. (1971) Early infantile autism and autistic psychopathy. Journal of Autism and Childhood Schizophrenia, 1, 82–6.Google Scholar
Van Krevelen, D. A. & Kuipers, C. (1962) The psychopathology of autistic psychopathy. Acta Paedopsychiatrica, 29, 22–31.Google Scholar
Wechsler, D. (1974) WISC-R Manual: Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children–Revised. Windsor: NFER.Google Scholar
Wing, L. (1981) Asperger's syndrome: a clinical account. Psychological Medicine, 11, 115–29.Google Scholar
Wing, L. & Gould, J. (1978) Systematic recording of behaviour and skills of retarded and psychotic children. Journal of Autism and Childhood Schizophrenia, 8, 79–97.Google Scholar
Wolff, S. & Barlow, A. (1979) Schizoid personality in childhood: a comparative study of schizoid, autistic and normal children. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 20, 29–46.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.