World Autism Day 2024: These are typical causes of autism

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April 2 is World Autism Day. In this way, autism should become more visible and individuals with autism should be better integrated into society. Early diagnosis and appropriate intervention measures are of great importance for the development of those affected. However, the question of the cause of autism remains a subject of research.

What is Autism?

Autism is a developmental disorder that manifests itself prominently with rhetorical and communicative disorders. People with autism perceive themselves and the world differently due to complex disorders in the central nervous system. They have difficulty recognizing the meaning and rules in communication and social behavior. For them, the world is incomprehensible, overwhelming and scary.

What are the typical symptoms?

Autism is a congenital and common disease. It primarily affects perception and information processing. Therefore, people with autism symptoms show weaknesses in communication and social interaction with other people. They often cannot correctly interpret other people’s facial expressions and gestures. Autistic people often try to establish order through repetitive, stereotyped actions. Their language develops slowly or not at all. Many isolate themselves from their environment.

They display extraordinary abilities in various fields, such as mathematics, art or music. and they usually have a high level of intelligence. Autism occurs in the first three years of life. Statistically, there are 6 to 7 people with autism for every 1000 people. There are more boys than girls – the ratio is 4:1.

How does autism occur?

Researchers continue to study the disease in more detail. Many scientists talk about a possible connection between nutrition, gut bacteria and medications. According to a study, 70 percent of autistic children have serious intestinal disorders. This led to the theory that autism may have a bacterial cause. Among the many hypotheses regarding the development of autism, colonization of the intestine by clostridia and their spores is argued to be an important influence.

Empathy is partly in the genes

How well we can empathize with others and respond appropriately has, of course, a lot to do with how we grew up and what experiences we had. According to an analysis of information from more than 46,000 study participants, 10 percent of empathy appears to be related to genetic factors. An international scientific team reports this in the journal Translational Psychiatry. The scientists said their study confirmed the results of previous empathy studies compared with monozygotic twins. The research also confirmed that women, on average, are more empathetic than men. However, according to the researchers, this difference was not due to genes, but to hormonal effects before birth, upbringing and socialization.

Thanks to genetic analysis, the biology of autism will be better understood

Additionally, scientists found that genetic variants associated with low levels of empathy were also associated with a higher risk of autism. They hope their work can help better understand the biology of autism, which could lead to faster and more accurate diagnosis. Study author Varun Warrier, from the University of Cambridge, says their study is an important step towards understanding the small but important role of genes in empathy. However, he also points out that only one tenth of the individual differences between people can be caused by genetic structure. It is equally important to deal with non-genetic factors that are responsible for the remaining 90 percent.

Is there a risk of fever during pregnancy?

Infections during pregnancy can endanger the unborn child. If expectant mothers experience fever spells, their children are more likely to suffer from autism spectrum disorders later on. That’s what US researchers said after evaluating data from nearly 100,000 Norwegian children. The risk of autism in children whose mothers had a fever during pregnancy was 34 percent higher than in children whose mothers did not have a fever. If fever attacks occur in the second trimester of pregnancy, the risk increases to 40 percent.

The risk increased as the number of fever attacks increased, according to the study authors. If mothers had a fever once or twice after the twelfth week of pregnancy, the rate increased by 1.3 times. If three or more fever attacks occur during this period, this rate triples. “Our results suggest a role in the infection of pregnant mothers and their innate immune response in the development of at least some autism spectrum disorders,” summarizes Mady Hornig, professor of epidemiology at Columbia University in New York. The results were published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.

Medication helps only to a limited extent

If mothers took antipyretic drugs such as ibuprofen or paracetamol, this had little effect on the children’s risk of developing autistic spectrum disorder. In the case of paracetamol, the study’s authors found a slightly lower risk. Data on ibuprofen were not significant because only very few women used this medication. It also remained unclear whether the cause of the fever played a role in autism risk. Of the 95,754 children included in the study between 1999 and 2009, 583 had autistic disorder. 15,701 mothers reported fever during pregnancy. “Future research should focus on identifying and preventing infections and inflammations that may contribute to autistic disorders,” the researchers cautioned.

Source : Blick