Causes of Autism

Mayo Clinic ^ | NA | Mayo Clinic Staff

[Neoliberalnot]

Autism spectrum disorder has no single known cause. Given the complexity of the disorder, and the fact that symptoms and severity vary, there are probably many causes. Both genetics and environment may play a role.

Genetics. Several different genes appear to be involved in autism spectrum disorder. For some children, autism spectrum disorder can be associated with a genetic disorder, such as Rett syndrome or fragile X syndrome. For other children, genetic changes (mutations) may increase the risk of autism spectrum disorder. Still other genes may affect brain development or the way that brain cells communicate, or they may determine the severity of symptoms. Some genetic mutations seem to be inherited, while others occur spontaneously. Environmental factors. Researchers are currently exploring whether factors such as viral infections, medications or complications during pregnancy, or air pollutants play a role in triggering autism spectrum disorder.

[tired&retired]

Started as an auditor for Ernst & Ernst, now Ernst & Young.
It was torture for me to fill out the forms. I hired people to do that in my firm and limited my work to problem solving, forensic examinations, handling IRS audits for other CPA’s and preparers, tax court cases, and as a tax law professor. Did many of the professional certifications... CMA, CIA,..... For me it was all too boring.

Changed hats midstream, returned to the university as a student to study psychology and then neuroscience. I have found studying the human brain and consciousness much more intellectually stimulating than tax law!

I still retain the CPA license just to help out friends.

[MD Expat in PA]

No. Not science. You seem to have adopted a strange mix of new age woo mixed with a splash of what you think Christianity is all about and then add self-delusions and self-aggrandizement of your “special” knowledge and abilities. You are a loon to put it mildly.

[stanne]

I always tune out when people say what doesn’t cause autism. They do not know. And they invariably come across with a superior attitude. Not helpful at all When choosing when or how to best help kids by vaccinating them after seeing normal kids go into a vaccination session normal and come out brain-damaged, i look at how our pharmaceutical industry and CDC lies to us. Then i look at what other developed countries do, Japan, France and Germany, whose health care philosophies include involvement of the client, ours clearly does not. Germany’s rate of autism is 1 in 233 where ours is 1 in 60 They space vaccines out over a longer period of time I never go around saying bombard people (and kids) with medications because it has not yet been proven harmful nor do i do this to kids As a nurse what i do know is this, we are a pharmaceutical dependent Culture. People are not involved with their health They depend on doctors who have become pharmaceutical salespeople dependent for their current events information on highly paid schmoozy pharmaceutical reps. I don’t leave my health nor my family’s health up to them. They depend on our being sick in order to collect money from our insurance companies and bankrupt Medicare which they themselves through fraud and mismanagement have run into the ground to the point where they allow parasites like hillary and obama to go in and set it up as a retirement account for themselves and their out of control weakly handlers, people who sell weapons grade uranium to our state enemies When people tell me i must be lying about my education because I️ don’t allow the pharmaceutical industry into my home I place them into the same category with people who try to be intellectually superior while they tell me to stop thinking But do take a look at the latest headlines in this forum Vaccines found to include aborted baby parts That’s who doctors defend

[CAluvdubya]

As a Special Education Aide, I can deal with children who have Autism. Where the big problem is currently.....violence.

We have many emotionally disturbed children in our schools nationwide that, through federal government mandate, the IDEA ( Individuals with Disabilities Education Act ) and FAPE (right to a free and public education), many aides, staff, and innocent students are being hurt at school.

One would think that the rights of the other students and staff would outweigh the rights of just one student but that would be wrong. If the violent behavior is a result or manifestation of the child's diagnosis, the school puts everyone else at risk in order to comply with federal regulations..

This is what I'm currently fighting in my school district as I have been hit, kicked, bit, punched, and objects thrown at me. The student isn't even sent home for the day as too many suspensions would violate his right to a free and public education. Alternative education would be at the cost of the school district and they aren't willing to pay extra money.

I'm not ready to retire and I hate for one student to drive me out of a job that I love but something has to change.

[Neoliberalnot]

Interesting. Is MCT mixed chain triglycerides?

[Neoliberalnot]

Interesting. Is MCT mixed chain triglycerides?

[Tax-chick]

I think there's a "correlation equals causation" fallacy here.

This statement, older women run a higher risk of bearing an autistic child, really means, "More children born to older women (than to younger women) are diagnosed with autism." However, we do not know how many children are born with autism (or "autism spectrum") and are not diagnosed. See my post above for some reasons why the child of a 30- to 40-year-old mother might have a greater chance of being diagnosed than an identical child born to a younger or older mother.

Since we do not know what causes autism, we cannot apply the reasoning under which age is causative for some conditions. For instance, we know that ova tend to degenerate with age, making maternal age a cause of a higher risk of babies with Down Syndrome. We know that tiny, benign colon polyps grow and deform into large, malignant tumors over time; thus, age is a cause of colon cancer diagnoses.

We do not have sufficient knowledge of autism to make any sure statements, in my opinion. The "nerds mating" hypothesis would also explain a correlation of autism diagnoses with older mothers: the highly-educated mother (the bookish sort who didn't have boyfriends in high school) marries the socially-akward IT-guy whose economic value has suddenly skyrocketed. Is their child more likely to be autism-spectrum because of their genes? Is it her age? Is it her (physical) age or her (as it were) life-stage conditions? We don't know.

[Neoliberalnot]

Fear mongering at its worst. I would imagine the lawyers are profiting greatly too from all the lawsuits.

[COUNTrecount]

Bookmark

[stanne]

Don’t know. Sometimes my paragraphs disappear

[Neoliberalnot]

You have a very sick mind. Sarc. Just kidding. What you posted was funny.

[Neoliberalnot]

Sometimes you misjudge. I have a 29 YO disabled son.

[tired&retired]

“screening for early childhood learning disabilities.”

Excellent comments.

I have discovered that autistic children are very intelligent, but need to learn logically and not emotionally the way virtually all preschool and elementary schools teach.

Several years ago I worked with an eight year old girl that had flunked kindergarten three times. She was under the care of a psychiatrist and diagnosed as autistic. We played a match game with cards, where the goal was to flip over two cards and find matches so you could keep those cards. She beat me, and her older brother.

I asked her father to purchase several duplicate sets of flashcards with the picture and word on the same side of the card and play the match game with them. She very quickly learned the words she could not learn otherwise.

You can’t emotionally learn organic chemistry!

Autism is super masculine consciousness and masculine consciousness locks on to the location of the memory where emotional consciousness locks on to the memory in the location. The logical masculine aspect of consciousness is excellent for memorization and often provides a photographic memory while the emotional feminine aspect is excellent at creativity(as it thinks outside the box or location where the memory is stored).

This is easy to demonstrate as I can have an emotional person lock onto an object I am holding, close their eyes, and their physical body will move in the direction I move the object. The logical masculine aspect of consciousness that is locked on to the space the object is in does not move their physical body when I move the object from the space. I only learned this as I physically feel their consciousness.

If teachers understood this, they could help all the inner city children who become slow learners due to a premature shift in consciousness from the emotional child to a premature sense of self for emotional trauma protection. These are the 7 year olds going on 35!

Normally the shift begins at age 8 (third grade when they teach long division and multiplication), and increases gradually. However, in children with trauma it often happens very young to block emotionally painful memory retrieval. This is also what causes childhood amnesia in that many people do not remember early life events.

[Vaquero]

Stuff it. Stop quoting data cherrypicked from the pharmaceutical industry. (Where I worked for 30+ years).

[Tax-chick]

You can see why - having a child who alphabetizes, color-codes, and draws fractal graphs for hours - I would find the “nerds mating” theory somewhat persuasive.

[Tax-chick]

My mom started with Peat Marwick and Main, when they were that. She was a specialist in multi-state returns.

[tired&retired]

LOL.. Love your comment.

We do not have sufficient knowledge of autism to make any sure statements, in my opinion. The "nerds mating" hypothesis would also explain a correlation of autism diagnoses with older mothers: the highly-educated mother (the bookish sort who didn't have boyfriends in high school) marries the socially-akward IT-guy whose economic value has suddenly skyrocketed. Is their child more likely to be autism-spectrum because of their genes? Is it her age? Is it her (physical) age or her (as it were) life-stage conditions? We don't know.

While there are many influencing factors, each of the above you mentioned influence the mother's ability to emotionally bond to the child. Bowlby and Ainsworth were more correct in their research than even they imagined.

[lurked_for_a_decade]

I wonder if there is any correlation to the introduction of hormone based oral contraceptives and the “rise” in autism! The time lines for the rise in both oral contraceptives use and Autism certainly overlap. Lord that would cause an incredible amount of angst across the fruited plain wouldn’t it.

Seeing as how I’m a nerd/geek, I don’t like the “Nerds Mating” hypothesis! Thankfully, my kids turned out Ok. So I’ll toss out the contraceptive correlation as causation. ;)

[exDemMom]

Fear mongering at its worst. I would imagine the lawyers are profiting greatly too from all the lawsuits.

Are you familiar with the history of the Wakefield fraud?

Andrew Wakefield was trying to run a double scam.

For one, he had an investment in a company that produced single component measles vaccine. However, it is difficult to sell parents on the idea that they should vaccinate for each component separately when they can get three vaccines in a single shot with the MMR. So, if he could "establish" that the 3-in-1 shot is dangerous, he would have "scientific evidence" to convince parents to use the single-component vaccine (and thereby profit).

The other part of his scam was that he was working with a lawyer who specialized in medical malpractice suits. On that front, if he could show "scientific evidence" that the MMR vaccine causes autism, then he stood to profit by acting as an "expert witness" in trials against vaccine manufacturers, medical facilities, and doctors, nominatively filed on behalf of parents with autistic children.

It is greatly unfortunate that the Lancet, which is a highly respected journal, fell for the scam despite what should have been a rigorous peer-review process. The "study" published is full of design flaws and very bad interpretation of the (scant and questionable) data. It should have never been published. In addition, the manipulations he did to the infant subjects of his "study" were never reviewed for scientific merit or for compliance with ethical standards by any committee.

Most academic papers that are retracted are removed from electronic copies of journals. If you try to look one up, you see nothing more than a notice that it has been retracted. In the case of the Wakefield paper, the retracted article is still available, but it clearly states that it is retracted--I think it even has a watermark "RETRACTED" across each page. My guess is that Lancet left the article because of its implications--disappearing it in the way that most retracted articles disappear would only feed into the anti-vax conspiracies.

[Tax-chick]

We can generate hypotheses that “Make sense to me!” all day, without ever proving anything ... possibly without ever getting near the true cause or causes. Coming up with an idea is always the easiest part of science.