Autism spectrum disorder: Terminology, epidemiology, and pathogenesis. Bridgemohan C. Autism spectrum disorder: Surveillance and screening in primary care. Levy SE, et al. Complementary and alternative medicine treatments for children with autism spectrum disorder. Brondino N, et al. Complementary and alternative therapies for autism spectrum disorder. Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine.
Volkmar F, et al. Practice parameter for the assessment and treatment of children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder. Autism spectrum disorder ASD. American Academy of Pediatrics policy statement: Sensory integration therapies for children with developmental and behavioral disorders. James S, et al. Chelation for autism spectrum disorder ASD. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. Van Schalkwyk GI, et al. Autism spectrum disorders: Challenges and opportunities for transition to adulthood.
Natural Medicines. Autism: Beware of potentially dangerous therapies and products. Food and Drug Administration. Accessed May 19, Drutz JE. Autism spectrum disorder and chronic disease: No evidence for vaccines or thimerosal as a contributing factor. Together, we will fill in autism's canvas until a clearer picture comes forward.
I don't know exactly what that picture looks like yet, but I like to imagine it is a utopia of sorts: the perfect intersection of science and people. There are strawberries and puppies and lots of peppermint gum in Walmart, the kind in the blue container. And if you look hard enough, you can see a glass house in the distance -- almost on the horizon. It glints and sparkles in the sunlight, and it is breathtaking. If you look closer, you will see a sentence etched into the front door.
This one sentence -- this collection of eight words -- well, they are very, very big. Also on HuffPost:. News U. Politics Joe Biden Congress Extremism.
Special Projects Highline. HuffPost Personal Video Horoscopes. Follow Us. Terms Privacy Policy. Part of HuffPost Parenting. All rights reserved. In no certain order, I have read the following explanations for autism over the years:. Too much automotive exhaust is a leading cause of autism.
Concordance for identical twins was 36 percent, compared to 0 percent for the fraternal twins. While the study was only small in size, it provided the first evidence that autism may be genetic in origin. Since this pioneering study, more than a dozen further twin studies have confirmed this original observation. The best current estimate is that there is a percent concordance for identical twins and a percent concordance for fraternal twins.
This indicates a strong genetic component to the condition. The figure for fraternal twins — percent — also represents the chance of a couple who already have a child with autism having a second child with autism referred to as the "recurrence risk". Once scientists have established that the cause of a disorder is influenced by genes, the next task is to identify the exact genes that might be involved.
However, after several decades of intensive research, scientists could find no one genetic mutation that all individuals diagnosed with autism shared. It was these findings or lack of findings that led scientists to stop thinking of autism as one condition with one cause. They started viewing it as many different conditions which all have relatively similar behavioural symptoms.
This new view of autism has proved extremely fruitful in discovering subtypes of autism. For example, a number of conditions have very clear genetic or chromosomal abnormalities that can lead to autistic behaviours. These include disorders that have abnormalities of the chromosomes, such as Down syndrome. While no chromosomal condition itself accounts for any more than 1 percent of individuals with autism, when combined they account for approximately percent of all individuals diagnosed with autism.
The exact genetic abnormalities that may lead to the remaining cases of autism are not completely clear. There are two reasons for this. The first is that the genetic regions involved are likely to be very complex.
Scientists have needed to develop new techniques to examine them. The second is that it is probable the genetic mutations are very rare and complex. The DNA chain that forms our chromosomes contains more than 3 billion building blocks. To identify small pieces of DNA that may be linked to the development of autism among so many base pairs, scientists need to study a very large number of people with autism.
To date, no study has been able to examine the thousands of people necessary to identify with accuracy all of the small mutations that might lead to autism. However, with genetic technologies improving at an astronomical pace, as well as global scientific cooperation that will lead to large numbers of people being studied, major advances in the understanding of the causes of autism are likely in the very near future.
A likely prospect is that many cases of autism will be related to what is called " common genetic variation ".
This refers to differences in genes that are also found in many individuals who do not have autism and which by themselves are not sufficient to lead to autism. However, when multiple genetic risk factors are found in the same person, they combine to have a major effect on how the brain develops.
A small proportion of autism cases are also likely to be caused by what are known as de novo new mutations. We have learned a lot about how many U. It will be important to use the same methods to track how the number of children with ASD is changing over time in order to learn more about the disorder. If you or the doctor is still concerned, ask the doctor for a referral to a specialist who can do a more in-depth evaluation of your child.
Specialists who can do a more in-depth evaluation and make a diagnosis include:. This is sometimes called a Child Find evaluation. Some people have had concerns that ASD might be linked to the vaccines children receive, but studies have shown that there is no link between receiving vaccines and developing ASD.
For more information about vaccines and ASD, click here. Skip directly to site content Skip directly to page options Skip directly to A-Z link. Section Navigation. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Syndicate. What is Autism Spectrum Disorder?
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