RELATION BETWEEN BLINDNESS DUE TO RETINOPATHY OF PREMATURITY AND AUTISTIC SPECTRUM DISORDERS - A POPULATION-BASED STUDY

Children with blindness due to retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) - who are at greatly increased risk of cerebral damage - have been noted to have a high rate of autistic symptoms, but systematic controlled studi es have been lacking. A controlled population-based study was performe d; one group was blind due to ROP (N=27) and the other was congenitall y blind due to hereditary retinal disease (N=14). Fifteen of the 27 ch ildren with ROP had autistic disorder. All these children were mentall y retarded and about one-third of them had cerebral palsy. In the comp arison group, two of the 14 children had autistic disorder. It is conc luded that there is a strong association between ROP and autistic diso rder. The association is most probably mediated by brain damage and is largely independent of the blindness per se.