I was wondering if any of you are from families where one or more siblings is/are diagnosed with Asperger's, autism, or anything else falling under the PDD umbrella, and one or more others are diagnosed with ADD/ADHD.

I am a 22 year old female with to younger male siblings. My youngest brother, 10 years old, was diagnosed with autism, and then Asperger's Syndrome, and that diagnosis is now in question again. He clearly falls somewhere on the Autism Spectrum, though. I've always wondered about the many parallels I have found in myself and my brother, but it's never been a concern that I am autistic as well.

Recently, I was diagnosed with ADD, a label under which fall the similarities I have to my brother and also the distinct differences that had eliminated autism as a possibilty for me.

I'd be very interested to know if any of you come from families with similar instances of both ADD/ADHD and autism occurring.

If so, are the autistic siblings high functioning? Are the family members of below, average, or gifted intelligence? Are there any learning disabilities or other disorders that coincide in these individuals or are present in other members of the family?

Thanks very much for your insight.

My husbands family has a large incidence of Autism in it...From what we know, his cousin has severe Autism..his brother has more like Aspergers, our son has HFA, but presents like aspergers with innattentive ADD..I am SURE MY HUBBY HAS ADD-ASPERGERS TOO...
None of them with the HFA or PDDs seem to be gifted etc...my hubby has a great mind for how things work, and has a great memory for certain things..our son *thinks* he is brilliant..LOL..but he is in modified classes at school...when I see him spacing out while doing homework etc..I am more symathetic to him than I was before, as I can now see he is only doing exactly what I did at his age...

Both our families have autism, aspergers, ADHD and LD.

Autims , bipolar and adhd occur in my family. Can you say uberspaz ???

ME :D

We might have one member with Aut.Spect. in our family but we dont know for sure yet.

I have Asperger's, brother and one cousin with ADHD, and another cousin with Autism.

My son has Asperger's, my daughter dyslexia. I have been told there is research to suggest a link between dyslexia, ADD, ADHD and ASD. All of those diagnoses including Pervasive Development Disorder-NOS, I have been led to believe all come under the Autism Spectrum Disorder umbrella.

Don't quote me on this, it has just been what I have heard and it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if it were true.

My son is very high functioning Asperger's - we believe he is gifted, though we would never test him, because he probably would refuse. The other point is if it were proven, he would lose his classroom help as the need for the school to provide one is based on IQ.

Shame they don't realise that these kids still need help even though they have high IQ's, because Cam can't deal with his emotions effectively and still need assistance with conceptual ideas and imaginative ideas, despite being bright.

Hope this helped a little......

just fyi ADHD is not in the autism spectrum.

I posted some vidoes iin this section of the forum that you might find interesting: http://addforums.com/forums/showthread.php?p=488801#post488801

Me :D

just thought I'd let you know where that info did come from - Wikipedia on ASD, so maybe not under the umbrella as such, but linked????

ADHD and autism
Some research suggests a possible genetic and behavioral connection between ADHD (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attention_deficit_hyperactivity_disorder) and autism

now I understand. ASD=autism spectrum disorder

There are a few who argue that ADHD IS in the autism spectrum but not very many... but that is another topic and we are perilously off topic.

Me :D

sorry about that - will fade into background now lol

I'm jumping in on this way after the fact, but I figured I'd share anyway. I am diagnosed with ADHD and bipolar. My father has Asperger's, my brother ADHD (and seems a bit Aspie-ish at times, but I'm not sure if he is or not). He and my father both have dysgraphia. My sister and mother are both ADD, but have also had problems with eating disorders. There seems to be some sort of severe anxiety on my mother's side of the family, but none of it has ever been formally diagnosed. I have auditory learning disabilities as well.

Wow! My family is a mess!

He and my father both have dysgraphia.

I had very bad dysgraphia that become apparent when we were required to write in cursive(4th grade I think). I was even whipped because of it(not a particularly effective way to treat a neurological/motor-skills problem). I started printing only till about my earily 20's when I could cursive write ok but I rarely do it other than my signature. In college I took notes but I could not/did not read them(at high speed printing became unreadable to). I think the act of just writing something aids memorization though.

my nephew is just diagnosed with PDD-NOS, and I suspect my brother (his father) of something or other .. and both my sisters are quite ADD-like, but apparently not that bad that it hampers them enough to seek help.

now I understand. ASD=autism spectrum disorder

There are a few who argue that ADHD IS in the autism spectrum but not very many... but that is another topic and we are perilously off topic.

Me :D

I don't think that is off topic at all, as the OP was asking about any link in families between having one or more on the autism spectrum and having others diagnosed with AD/HD. I had the impression that they are both/all neurologic disorders, and I've read where recent research indicates they both may be linked to the same abnormal gene.

I took one of the online tests in one of the threads here yesterday and the results indicate that I could very well be diagnosed with ADHD - or with ASP - or with HFA - or with PPD, possibly even with Bipolar. I've always struggled with dyspraxia and dyscalculia and depression. Are these not all neurlogic disorders? I have a sister who has been diagnosed with OCD - another similar disorder - and I don't think they went far enough in diagnosing her. I am certain that she would be diagnosed somewhere on the autism spectrum.

My oldest granddaughter has a tentative diagnosis of ADHD, with the possibility of Asperger's not ruled out yet. My youngest granddaughter has a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum but Bipolar has not been ruled out either. She is only 6 and has what I consider to be severe depression. None of us want to start her on drugs unless it's necessary, but it's looking more and more necessary to try something.

But I would say based on my own experience, that yes, there does seem to be a familial component with neurological disorders in my own family.

And my granddaughter's probably got an extra shot at these issues, there are some in their daddy's family who have been diagnosed with ADHD, and their daddy has Parkinson's, another neurological disorder.

Not to mention that my ex - their grandfather, no relation to their daddy - had been diagnosed with Parkinson's as well shortly before his death 4 years ago.

At age 50 my brother was diagnosed with Aspergers (very high functioning) and is ADHD.
My other brother was diagnosed with ADHD as a child and took ritalin back in the 60's.
My husband and I both have ADD
My three oldest children have ADD and sensory integration dysfunction. The youngest of these three, Caleb, has recently been diagnosed with Asperger's. He and my oldest child have dysgraphia as well. His sensory profile is the most severe and always has been and we spent two years with an OT to help with sensory issues and the dysgraphia.
Now we're on to Speech Therapist to deal with language problems that are indiginous to aspergers.

Let's see. I've been dx'ed with adhd. My husband has not, but he has many common traits. Both of our daughters have traits, but it's difficult to tell whether that's nature or nurture, imo. They're both pretty young with limited outside influences.

My mother-in-law and sister-in-law have histories of depression, adhd, possible bi-polar, and probably a few things I'm not aware of, but they've both been on tons of different medications in the 8 years I've known them.

My older son is dx'ed with Asperger's. His biological father has no medical diagnosis, but countless "issues". My ex's mother is dyslexic and his brother was diagnosed bi-polar, though many of us (him included) believe it's possibly AS as well, knowing what we know now. Ex's father has the same issues as Ex, but magnified about 1,000 times.

My father was dx'ed with clinical depression. Looking back, I remember incidents of major mania. His life is a pretty big mess, so I happen to believe it's likely that he would have multiple dx's, at least one with "social issues" as a major component.

My sister is dx'ed bipolar, and is just beginning to get her life back on track after years of abusing all kinds of substances.

I have an aunt on one side and an uncle on the other who undoubtedly have psych/medical issues.

Of everyone in our large family, my mother and another sister are the most "normal" I can think of, and they're nuts none the less, lol.

Suppose I wade in again. My sister has 9 children, at least 4 of them have ADD/ADHD and she is trying to get one of them diagnosed with Bipolar.

My brothers 4 year old son has been diagnosed with severe Autism, no speech, no interaction - nothing, like someone has turned the lights off.

Myself and my 3 sibilings all suffer depression, mine specifically major depression, post traumatic stress disorder and severe anxiety. My son has Asperger's, my daughter Dylsexia.

I think my other sister's son has ODD though she thinks he has food sensitivity issues, but he really is a handful.

On my husbands side, I believe there are at least 2 undiagnosed Asperger's, I believe my husband and his older sister have Asperger's too. One of his sister's has a son with Asperger's and one with learning difficulties - perhaps Dyslexia.

My sister with the 9 kids is psychotic - undiagnosed but there is definitely a problem with her, she is so savage and violent and it comes out of nowhere.

So, I suppose it could be family genes or dynamics