Children with Autism, ADHD Face Higher Risks of Depression

An autistic child plays with a horse during the Horse Therapy Special Children program at the Mounted Police Sub-Division in Bangkok. (photo credit: REUTERS)
An autistic child plays with a horse during the Horse Therapy Special Children program at the Mounted Police Sub-Division in Bangkok. (photo credit: REUTERS)
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Children with Autism, ADHD Face Higher Risks of Depression

An autistic child plays with a horse during the Horse Therapy Special Children program at the Mounted Police Sub-Division in Bangkok. (photo credit: REUTERS)
An autistic child plays with a horse during the Horse Therapy Special Children program at the Mounted Police Sub-Division in Bangkok. (photo credit: REUTERS)

Children with autism who also have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are more likely to develop anxiety and depression than autistic kids without ADHD, a US study suggests.

Researchers examined data on 3,319 children ranging in age from 6 to 17 years old who had been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Overall, 1,503 of these kids, or 45 percent, had also been diagnosed with ADHD.

Compared to children with autism alone, kids who also had ADHD were more than twice as likely to be diagnosed with depression and anxiety, researchers reported in Pediatrics.

Lead study author Dr. Eliza Gordon-Lipkin, a researcher at Kennedy Krieger Institute and Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, said: “Anxiety disorder and mood disorder, while very common in autism spectrum disorder, are even more common when children also have ADHD.”

“Recognizing and treating anxiety and mood disorders can lead to improved quality of life for patients and their families,” she said by email.

According to Reuters, Approximately 1 in 68 US kids have ASD and about 1 in 10 have ADHD.

The research team pointed out that while it has long been recognized that ADHD is much more common among kids with autism than among other children, research to date hasn’t offered a clear picture of how living with both conditions at once impacts the risk of other behavioral or mental health problems.

In the current study, children with both conditions were 2.2 times more likely than those with only ASD to have anxiety and 2.7 times more likely to have depression. The risk of developing anxiety and depression also increased with age.

The study wasn’t a controlled experiment designed to prove whether or how having ADHD in addition to autism might make kids develop anxiety or depression.

Geraldine Dawson, director of the Center for Autism and Brain Development at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, and who didn’t partake in the study, advised parents of kids with autism to lookout for symptoms of anxiety and mood disorders.

She also said by email: “Both medications and behavioral interventions, such as cognitive behavioral therapy, can be very helpful for children with autism who have anxiety or mood disorder.”



Sunken WWII Japanese Warship Found Off Solomon Islands

A team from the US non-profit Ocean Exploration Trust discovered the Imperial Japanese Navy destroyer Teruzuki. Photo: Ocean Exploration Trust
A team from the US non-profit Ocean Exploration Trust discovered the Imperial Japanese Navy destroyer Teruzuki. Photo: Ocean Exploration Trust
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Sunken WWII Japanese Warship Found Off Solomon Islands

A team from the US non-profit Ocean Exploration Trust discovered the Imperial Japanese Navy destroyer Teruzuki. Photo: Ocean Exploration Trust
A team from the US non-profit Ocean Exploration Trust discovered the Imperial Japanese Navy destroyer Teruzuki. Photo: Ocean Exploration Trust

An international research team has located a Japanese World War II destroyer on the deep seabed off Solomon Islands as the 80th anniversary of the war's end approaches.

A team from the US non-profit Ocean Exploration Trust discovered the Imperial Japanese Navy destroyer Teruzuki at a depth of more than 800 meters (2,625 feet) off the small island nation northeast of Australia, AFP reported.

A video image of the wreck shows parts of the 134-meter (440-foot) Teruzuki, which was torpedoed by the US military in 1942, illuminated by lights from the research team's underwater drones.

The footage shows red paint on the hull, corroded gun barrels and the warship's massive stern.

Commissioned in 1942, the Teruzuki was designed for screening aircraft carriers from aerial attacks, the exploration group said.

However, the Teruzuki, which means "Shining Moon" in Japanese, was hit by US torpedoes just months into its service.

Nine sailors were killed but most of the crew members survived, the Ocean Exploration Trust said.

Teruzuki's stern was found more than 200 meters (660 feet) from the hull and was located by high-resolution sonar scans, it said.

The discovery was made while the team used drones to survey the area in the hope of finding unidentified shipwrecks or other items.