Cross Disorder Genetic Risk

The overall goal of this entry is to provide an overview of current knowledge regarding genetic factors that increase risk for multiple developmental disorders. The first section briefly discusses why these shared risk factors may be important by summarizing the extent and implications of co-occurrence between disorders. The second section describes how studies of families and twins can be used to determine the extent to which the same genetic influences contribute to this co-occurrence. The third section summarizes the results of initial studies that have attempted to identify specific genes that contribute to cross-disorder genetic risk. The entry concludes by describing key clinical implications and future directions for this work.