Causes And Symptoms Of Autism – Are There Known Causes Of Autism?

As with perhaps every other medical condition under the sun, there simply is no way anyone can lay claim to effectively treating and curing a disease without finding out what exactly has caused it. You will agree with me that the diseases that have been cured already are diseases whose causes and contributing factors have been deciphered and analyzed already. There is no reason why autism should be considered different.

I am not a researcher or a scientist, but I am herewith bringing the pointers together so that all who are interested may take note. The affective treatment of autism is definitely going to remain an enigma for as long as the cause of the disorder is not known. There are various theories that have been tested over time – some discarded, some requiring further testing, and many others still in the work. Invariably, that is why there are still so many institutions that are into the study and pathology of autism today: they have identified several potential risk factors, but no cause just yet.

In reality, there may not be a particular cause of autism considering all the known cases in the United States and around the word, and the idea is that the developmental disorder may actually be a number of separate disorders with different risk factors that lead to the pattern of problems and symptoms that describe autism. Certainly there are biological bases that involve brain abnormalities and genes included in the primary risk factors of autism, but there are also bound to be others.

An idea that has thankfully been discarded over time is that autism was caused by a mother’s lack of warmth and connection to her infant, suggesting bad parenting as the chief cause and damaging countless families. Today, scientists have recognized autism as distinct from schizophrenia, not a psychosis, more likely caused by neurological abnormalities than poor parenting.

In addition, a definitive genetic factor has been unearthed through testing of twins, proving for a fact that patients who suffer from autism have definitely inherited part of the genes from their parents. Increase the activity of serotonin transporter proteins that pulls the neurotransmitter chemical into platelets and neurons, may explain a portion of autism patients with hyperserotonemia and the doubled risk of autism in children who inherit a common variation of the MET gene, from parents.

Also a potential culprit as a factor contributing to the incidence of autism in autism sufferers is brain abnormalities. Theories suggest that something do go wrong during brain development to cause the disorder, autism. Research shows that people with autism show less activity than normal in the mirror neuron system of the brain and they often overreact emotionally to trivial events in their environments, suggesting a problem with the processing of what they perceive. But precisely what it is remains unknown.

Mothers infected with certain illnesses or who took particular drugs during pregnancy may have inadvertently caused autism in their children as part of a larger set of difficulties. This is a strong suggestive cause, but is also inconclusive. Undoubtedly, exposure to the seizure medication valproate can affect the development of the brain and central nervous system enough to increase the risk of autism, but exactly how much is not known. Until all of these causes are properly deciphered, the syndrome will definitely continue to be a mystery.