Relationship and New Prospectives in Joint Hypermobility in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Preliminary Data
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Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and joint hypermobility (JH) are considered two different etiological and clinical entities that most often appear in childhood. Despite growing increased research showing a co-occurrence for both conditions, a link between them is rarely established in clinical settings, and the relationship between ASD and JH has not so far been completely investigated in all age groups of ASD children. This preliminary study examined a cohort of 67 non-syndromic ASD children aged 2–18 years (sex ratio M:F = 12:1) showing different degrees of cognitive impairment and autism severity, using the Beighton scale and its revised version. A total of 63% of ASD patients aged 2–4 years and 73% of ASD patients aged ≥5 years presented significant scores of hypermobility. No significant correlation was found comparing total laxity score and cognitive assessments and severity of autistic symptomatology (p > 0.05). The results suggest that JH could be considered as a clinical characteristic of ASD patients and it needs to be assessed in order to schedule a better rehabilitation program.
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Four out of five studies conducted in autistic children reported an association between ASD and JH.
“Four out five studies conducted in autistic children reported an association between ASD and JH (Blanche, Reinoso, et al., 2012;Paquet et al., 2017;Romeo et al., 2023;Shetreat-Klein et al., 2014).”
From Autism in the context of joint hypermobility, hypermobility spectrum disorders, and Ehlers–Danlos syndromes: A systematic review and prevalence meta-analyses (2025) · cites this paper as Romeo et al., 2023
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- Authors
- Romeo, D. M., Moro, M., Pezone, M., Venezia, I., Mirra, F., De Biase, M., Polo, A., Turrini, I., Lala, M. R., Velli, C., Sini, F., Dragone, D., Mercuri, E., & Brogna, C.
- Affiliations
- Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (IT)
- Pediatric Neurology, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, 00168 Rome, Italy
- Agostino Gemelli University Polyclinic (IT)
- Neuropsychiatric Unit ASL Avellino, 83100 Avellino, Italy
- Corresponding author
- Brogna, Claudia
- ORCID
- Venue
- Journal of Personalized Medicine
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Published
- 2023-12-18
- Volume
- 13
- Issue
- 12
- Pages
- 1723
- ISSN
- 2075-4426 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC10744756
- OpenAlex
- W4389884504
- Cited by
- 7
- References
- 36
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 2
- FWCI
- 1.05
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Personalized Medicine (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubliCatt (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Connective tissue disorders research
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Genetics and Neurodevelopmental Disorders
- Keywords
- autism spectrum disorder, joint hypermobility, children, Beighton scale, joint laxity, cognitive impairment, autism severity, developmental age, rehabilitation
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