The Impact of Advanced Paternal Age on Autism, Schizophrenia, and other Neurological Disorders: A Literature Review

Abstract

Autism Spectrum Disorder is a chronic disorder with onset by age three and is characterized by challenges with social skills, repetitive behaviors, speech, as well as with nonverbal communication (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). The rate of children being born with Autism Spectrum Disorder has significantly risen from 1 in 110 in 2006 to 1 in 54 in 2016 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2020) and in recent years, there has been much research dedicated to investigating the cause. Schizophrenia is another neurological disorder, typically diagnosed during one’s mid-teens and mid-thirties that involves continuous patterns of delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, and grossly disorganized or catatonic behavior (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Schizophrenia is one of the top 15 leading causes of disability worldwide (GBD 2016 Disease and Injury Incidence and Prevalence Collaborators) and while the exact causes of both of these neurological disorders are unknown, most research agrees that there is a strong genetic component as well as an environmental influence. Nonetheless, there is always more research to be done regarding stronger or weaker causation factors in order to be able to provide clues to the biological pathways leading to these neurological disorders. (from Introduction)