Assessment of the levels of vasopressin and androgen in the sample of Iraqi children with Autism spectrum disorder

Autism is a very common problem in childhood, especially in boys, and no marker or special test for helping early diagnosis. Androgen, vasopressin and apelin levels are neuropeptides that have been included in a wide range of functions of the brain and the abnormal levels detected and studied in many psychiatric disorders. Aimed to assess salivary levels of androgen, vasopressin and apelin in the autistic male mild and moderate divide in the first and second groups according to age (6-10 and 10- 13 years old) and compared to the normal boys group. Forty-five autistic boys mild and moderate in two groups according to age (6-10 and 10-13years old) were diagnosed early by the specialist child psychiatrist, and 45 healthy normal children were free of neurological and psychiatric disorders were enrolled in this study, saliva samples were gathered, and send for those hormones levels examinations which measured by using indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (IELISA). Results were analyzed using a special statistic program (SPSS version 18). The mean salivary androgen level was significantly increased in the autistic group than that of the control, also it was found a highly significant increase of salivary androgen levels in the older age group between 6 to 10 years old than in the age group from 10 to 13 years. The mean vasopressin level in Saliva was decreased in the whole autistic group compared to the control, but there was a significant increase in the mean vasopressin level in the older age group 10- years than in the younger age group. Mean salivary apelin level was a highly significant increase in autistic children compared to control and didn’t find statistically significant differences between the age groups of autistic children according to the apelin level in saliva. The levels of these hormones are altered in autistic boys than the normal behavior boys, there is a significant correlation (p 0.05)between vasopressin and androgen with simple  linear regression.