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No evidence for links between autism, MMR and measles virus

W Chen1, S Landau, P Sham

  • 1Institute of Psychiatry, King's College and Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Guy's, King's and St Thomas's School of Medicine, University of London.

Psychological Medicine
|July 21, 2004
PubMed
Abstract

Insights

This UK study found no increased autism risk from measles infections or vaccines, including MMR. Unexpectedly, autism diagnoses decreased by 21% in later birth cohorts.

Area of Science:

  • Epidemiology
  • Public Health
  • Immunization Studies

Background:

  • Investigated potential links between early-life exposures to measles and autism risk in the UK.
  • Examined risks associated with wild measles, live attenuated measles vaccines, and MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine components.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To determine if measles exposure or vaccination increases autism (AD) risk.
  • To assess the impact of MMR vaccine introduction and mumps strain changes on AD incidence.

Main Methods:

  • Time trend analyses of autism and Down's syndrome (DS) births (1959-1993).
  • Correlated measles incidence with AD and DS births (1968-1986).
  • Analyzed AD birth trends for impacts of monovalent measles vaccine (1968) and MMR (1988, 1992).

Main Results:

  • No significant association found between AD births and measles infection exposure.
  • No increase in AD births linked to monovalent measles or MMR vaccine introduction.
  • A significant 21% reduction in AD births observed in post-1987 cohorts.

Conclusions:

  • No evidence of increased autism risk from wild measles or measles-containing vaccines (MMR).
  • The cause of the observed reduction in autism diagnoses remains unclear.
  • Correlational design cannot rule out rare MMR complications.

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