Autoimmune diseases in parents of children with infantile autism: a case-control study Infantile Autism is classified as a heterogeneous pervasive developmental disorder that impairs communication, social interaction and the presence of limited selection of activities. Infantile autism (IA) is a complex multifactorial disorder, and the evidence suggests that the pathogenesis is likely to involve strong genetic factors (Mourdisen et al., 2007). The article I have chosen is a research case-control study that involves autoimmune diseases within the parents of children that have infantile autism. The autoimmune theory was first projected after the observances of a bizarrely high number of autoimmune disorders were found in families with an autistic child.
The case-control study was performed in Denmark in the Copenhagen and Aarhus university hospitals. The sample was taken from the population of patients that were attending certain departments in the child psychiatry units. This register study compared the rates and types of autoimmune disease in the parents (Mourdisen et al., 2007). There were approximately 111 patients, along with their parents, used; 82 males and 29
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In my opinion, not knowing much about the science behind this and not knowing much information about conducting a research study, I feel as if this was a very complex study but I am not sure about the level of accuracy. I am just not completely sure of how accurate 27 years’ worth of medical records are. Overall, I believe this was a great research study. I also believe there should be more research done involving Infantile Autism, the causes, and certain medical issues that can be associated with IA. I think that this research study could help bring awareness to the parents whose children have IA; however, I do not believe this study will help the parents find many
In the study they only involved the caregivers of the child and their response to the study. To increase accuracy and add to the results, in future studies they might consider involving the children with Autism Spectrum Disorder to record valuable data. Bringing in the children in the beginning and end in order to record the results and effectiveness of the program would help tremendously. Doing so would help the study by providing more information regarding the results and improvements the caregiver and child have made
There has been an increase in the number of incidents (or rate) of ASD diagnoses, the important word being diagnoses. This could be due to a number of things, such as the change in the criteria for an autism diagnosis in the DSM-V (which has the potential to make it more likely a child with neuro-atypicalities will receive an autism diagnosis), increase in awareness of ASD (parents that suspect their child has autism will take them to be diagnosed to receive services), and improved information for clinicians (children with symptoms of autism are less likely to go undiagnosed and are diagnosed at younger ages). Infants can display predictive symptoms of autism and, while they are not immediately diagnosed, they can be “watched” and diagnosed
Today, the Lupus Foundation of America announced the new research grants awarded to fund critical areas of research where gaps in the understanding and knowledge of lupus including; pediatric lupus, cutaneous (skin) lupus, mid-to-late stage translational research, adult stem cells, and neuropsychiatric lupus, which affects the brain and nervous system. The LFA National Research Program; Bringing Down the Barriers, Is committed to accelerating the pace of medical discovery in lupus and directing support toward promising areas of study where other public and private organizations have not focused their efforts.
In the United States, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention reports that between 1 in 80 and 1 in 240, for an average of 1 in 110 children have an autism spectrum disorder, “ASD” (Nirv, Shah 2011). According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, up to six out of every 1,000 children may be diagnosed with some form of autism. In addition, boys are four times more likely than girls to have autism. This means that as many as 1.5 million Americans today are believed to have some form of autism. Unfortunately, the numbers appear to be increasing rapidly. Autism is a disability that frequently appears during the first three years of life. It is the result of a neurological disorder that affects the
There has been much research and debate on whether vaccines cause autism, however, there is no evidence that Measles, Mumps, Rubella vaccination is associated to autism. Parental age and pregnancy complications have been the most studied risk factors for ASD especially low birth weight and prematurity. Three of five studies have found low birth weight to have a significant association with autism spectrum disorder. Mothers aged 35 years and older and fathers aged 40 to 49 years have also found significant associations with autism. Pregnancy complications have been found to be significantly associated with ASD according to a 2012 systematic review. Prenatal, perinatal, and neonatal overall health have been explored by many studies. A cohort
I agree with the author Kraft, Ulrich that detecting early autism is the key to early treatment. If we can detect autism in children even 6 months old and get the right treatment for children when the right and left region are wiring we can make a great process as the child gets older. It’s important to start early intervention to improve the opportunity for children to learn from early intervention that helps them with communication, social behavior, and repetitive interest behavior. A lot of the times children are taught every skills, that takes them months to years to learn one skill. It is highly important they get the early treatment that can help them in everyday life. I also found “The Autism Phenome Project” study to be interesting and can’t wait to read more about the results. As we already know what causes autism is genetics, and this study will help us learn more what is in the environment that is triggering autism. It’s important to learn about autism and have all different kinds of studies because now there are children 1 in 66 that are developing this diagnosis and every child is very
Currently there are no effective means to prevent autism, no fully effective treatments or cures. Scientists are working hard every day to find a solution to this increasing problem. While support groups have said for years that the lack of funding for research is responsible for the few definitive answers, a bill known as the Combating Autism Act, which concentrate billion to developing a cure, is now on the way to Congress. Autism receives less than five percent of the research funds of other less common childhood diseases. Until a cure is discovered, parents have been counting on early
The researchers of this study have conducted several studies in the area of autism and it is published in a respected publication which focuses on autism. I found the lack of a thorough explanation of the training program parents engaged in somewhat dismaying. Although they explained some of the things covered, it did not include how many sessions, how often, or if the children were involved. They suggest that training is beneficial for all, but they don 't really have the data to prove this suggestion as there was very little effect on the children with less extreme behaviors over those who were simply medicated. The sample size was relatively small which left potential for a false negative. Although
What causes the immune system to malfunction is unknown. Therefore, there is no reliable way to prevent developing an autoimmune disease. There is a possibility that hormones may play a part in stimulating autoimmune diseases. Autoimmune diseases may even have an inherited element because a good number of autoimmune diseases likely run in families. This means that a person is seemingly likely to develop the disease if that person has a close relative with that disease. For a few autoimmune diseases, this familial possibility remains small. (Franz, 2006, Laberge, Davidson, 2007, Schwartz, 2007, Dugdale, 2009, Wrong Diagnosis, 2000).
Autoimmune uveitis is among the leading causes of blindness. There exist microbes that dwell naturally in our intestines that can be trigger to this disease, and a new study has found that some such microbes produce proteins that candor to harmfully maladjusted immune cells’ entering our eyes.
Autism affects every 1 in 68 children in America, autism is a mental condition, present from early childhood, characterized by difficulty in communicating and forming relationships with other people and in using language and abstract concepts. What causes autism? A short while ago, the answer to this question would have been “we have no clue.” Research is now bringing us the answers. First, we now know that there is no one cause of autism just as there is no one type of autism. In the last five years, scientists have identified a number of rare gene changes, or mutations, associated with autism. There has been more than a hundred autism risk genes identified. In around 15 percent of cases, a specific genetic cause of a person’s autism can be identified. In the presence of a genetic bias to autism, a number of nongenetic, or environmental, influence further increase a child’s risk. The coherent evidence of these environmental risk factors includes events before and during birth. They include progressive parental age at time of conception, maternal illness during pregnancy, extreme prematurity and highly low birth weight and certain difficulties during birth, especially those involving periods of oxygen deprivation to the baby’s brain. Mothers threatened by high levels of pesticides and air pollution could also be at higher risk of having a child with Autism Spectrum Disorder. A small but growing body of research
Is autism caused by vaccines or is it genetic? Is it caused by environmental factors or are there problems during pregnancy that can cause it? Psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler first used the term autism in 1908, and in the 1940s the United States began to use this term to describe children with emotional or social problems. He used it to describe “a schizophrenic patient who had withdrawn into his own world”. The Greek word ' 'autós ' ' meaning self was what the name autism was derived from and was used by Bleuler to mean a morbid self-admiration and withdrawal into one’s self. In the early 1940s, child psychiatrists Leo Kanner and Hans Asperger studied separate groups of children. Each group had many of the same symptoms like difficulties in social interactions, or difficulty with adapting to changes in their routine, good memory, and noticed that an autistic child’s motor skills were different from a non-autistic child’s. Kanner and Bettelheim tried to blame the cause of autism on the coldness of the children’s mothers and separated the children from their parents. More information was revealed when an education and therapy foundation was created in the early 80s. Many parents at this time still confused autism with mental retardation and psychosis, and realized that bad parenting had no grounds as being the causative. The idea that autism came from neurological disturbances and genetic abnormalities like tuberous sclerosis, PKU, and fragile X syndrome.
Autoimmune diseases are a growing concern in the American population. An estimated 10 million Americans suffer from autoimmune diseases with 75% of these cases being of women. Furthermore, autoimmune diseases have grown to be within the top 10 causes of death among American women. The incidences of these diseases have been shown to increase with financial wealth, industrial development, and the modern progression of life. As such, the occurrence of these conditions is expected to grow as time passes. With such a notable modern influence, it is shocking that these diseases were not considered of clinical relevance until the 1950s. The investigation of the mechanisms of the propagation of these diseases have been of immense scientific relevance ever since. The complicated immunological background behind infection and treatment of autoimmune diseases while interesting from a scientists perspective, means that from the perspective of treatment there is a long arduous path until new, efficient treatments will show an appreciable decrease in the occurrence of these diseases within American population.
At 16 years old I was debilitated by constant fatigue and pain. I reached out to several doctors, but trained professionals disregarded me and reiterated toxic phrases such as, “depression” or “all in her head”. Day after day, I suffered from a plethora of symptoms only to have my cries ignored. Finally, after seeing over 12 doctors I had found one that actually listened to me and ran the appropriate tests to form a diagnosis. At 18 I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder.
The overwhelming majority of the population most affected by this disease is children under 5 years of age (Caminade et al., 2013). This is due largely to the fact that adults have a more developed immune system compared to children. A more developed immune system enables adults to provide a much stronger response to the disease which explains the significantly smaller of fatalities that are associated with the disease (Mandel, Sinha, & Sarkar, 2013). Adults that are exposed to the disease are more likely to develop immunity compared to children whose immune systems are still developing and thus more vulnerable to infections such as malaria. According to Artzy-Randrup and his colleagues (2010), individuals living in regions where the P. falciparum