Autism is genetic

23 October 2002
with Norman Swan

 

I’ve mentioned this before in Health Minutes – it’s the huge controversy surrounding the suggestion that autism might be caused by something in the environment.

One of the things that’s been blamed is the Measles Mumps Rubella vaccine, the MMR. However, more than one study has shown that not to be the case.

A clue to an environmental cause might be evident if the rates of autism in a particular community can be shown to have risen. You might have seen a story from California recently suggesting rates have gone up there. But that study may not have been well carried out and is yet to be properly reviewed.

And new research from the Children’s Hospital Westmead has found that autism and a condition related to it called Asperger’s syndrome do not appear to have risen over the last couple of decades in Australia.

What they did find was that past estimates of the numbers of people with autistic disorder were too low and when you look carefully, especially with updated definitions of the problem, there’s more autism around than the experts once imagined – perhaps as many as 1 or 2 people in every 1000.

The apparent stability in the figures suggests that if there is an environmental factor, it isn’t a major one. Autism is almost certainly primarily a genetic disorder.
 

More Info?
Health Report 22 /4/2002 - Autism and Asperger's Syndrome
Health News 11/4/2002 - Early diagnosis of autism made easier