There is evidence that autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) co-occur with bipolar disorder (BD) relatively frequently. Individuals with BD often report symptoms of mania and hypomania during adolescence, prior to the age of onset for BD. It is unknown whether these symptoms are associated with ASDs. We examined whether diagnoses of ASDs and autistic traits were associated with hypomania in a large, population-based Swedish twin sample.

Parental structured interviews assessed autistic traits, and were used to assign screening diagnoses of ASDs, when twins were aged 9 or 12 (N = 13 533 pairs). Parents then completed questionnaires assessing hypomania when the twins were aged 15 and 18 (N = 3852 pairs at age 15, and 3013 pairs at age 18). After investigating the phenotypic associations between these measures, we used the classical twin design to test whether genetic and environmental influences on autistic traits influence variation in adolescent hypomania.

Autistic traits and ASD diagnoses in childhood were associated with elevated scores on the measures of adolescent hypomania. Twin analyses indicated that 6–9% of the variance in hypomania was explained by genetic influences that were shared with autistic traits in childhood. When repeating these analyses for specific autistic trait domains, we found a stronger association between social interaction difficulties and hypomania than for other autistic trait domains.

These results indicate a genetic link between autistic traits and hypomania in adolescence. This adds to the growing evidence base of genetic factors associated with ASDs showing links with psychiatric outcomes across childhood and into adulthood.

有证据表明自闭症谱系障碍 (ASD) 与双相情感障碍 (BD) 相对频繁地同时发生。BD 患者经常报告在青春期出现躁狂和轻躁狂的症状，即在 BD 发病年龄之前。尚不清楚这些症状是否与 ASD 相关。我们在基于人口的大型瑞典双胞胎样本中检查了自闭症谱系障碍和自闭症特征的诊断是否与轻躁狂症相关。

当双胞胎年龄在 9 岁或 12 岁时（ N = 13 533 对），父母结构化访谈评估了自闭症特征，并用于指定 ASD 的筛查诊断。然后，当双胞胎分别为 15 岁和 18 岁时，父母完成了评估轻躁狂的问卷调查（15 岁时N = 3852 对，18 岁时 N = 3013 对）。在调查了这些措施之间的表型关联后，我们使用经典的双胞胎设计来测试遗传和环境对自闭症特征的影响是否会影响青春期轻躁狂的变异。

儿童时期的自闭症特征和 ASD 诊断与青春期轻躁狂测量得分升高有关。双胞胎分析表明，轻躁狂症中 6-9% 的差异可以用与儿童期自闭症特征共有的遗传影响来解释。当对特定的自闭症特征领域重复这些分析时，我们发现社交互动困难和轻躁狂之间的关联比其他自闭症特征领域更强。

这些结果表明自闭症特征与青春期轻躁狂症之间存在遗传联系。这增加了与 ASD 相关的遗传因素的越来越多的证据基础，显示出与整个童年和成年期的精神病结果的联系。