Behavioral Patterns of Autism - Research Paper Example

?Introduction Autism is a life long brain disorder where people with autism have problem in communication, forming relationships and understanding the real world around them. It varies in severity and impact from case to case basis. Its sources are speculated to be more genetic than anything else and happen to boys more frequently than girls the reason being less known. It is mainly referred by impaired social interaction & communication and by restricted & repetitive behavior. These behavioral patterns are observed in a child before he is three year old. (Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, Community report, 2009) Occurrence of autism is not fully explained by the scientific fraternity. But it is known that it affects the information processing in brain by the alteration of nerve cells. Autism has a strong and complex genetic basis, but is unclearly explained as either rare mutation or rare combination of common genetic variants. In Autism spectrum disorder (ASDs) there are three recognized disorder namely Autism disorder, Asperger syndrome, and Pervasive development disorder. Autism disorder (also called “classic” autism): It is referred by impaired social interaction & communication and by restricted & repetitive behavior. (CDC, 2011) Asperger syndrome: It is referred with delays in cognitive development and language. This is a miler version of autism and generally the problems of language and intellectual ability improves over time. (CDC, 2011) Pervasive Developmental Disorder – Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS; also called “atypical autism”) It is referred when both the above mentioned disorders (Asperger syndrome, Autism disorder) does not meet the full set criteria. For eg. Rett's Syndrome (RTT). This has limited effects as compared to a full fledged autism (CDC, 2011). Some of the people suffering from Autism are able to live a regular life, while some require a special back up. These people are affected in different ways but share three main areas of difficulty known as 'triad of impairments'. Difficulty with social communication: Social Interaction – this shall include the recognition of once own feelings and that of others. Lack of forming friendships due to this insensitivity. Difficulty with social interaction: Social Communication – unable to use verbal and non verbal way of communication such as voice tone, hand gestures, facial expression and body language Difficulty with social imagination: Social Imagination – inability to understand the whole social setup in today’s world. Unable to understand motivation and behavior of other person accompanied by doing a narrow range of work repetitively all the time. Facts about Autism (ADMM Community report, 2009 and Simons L., National Autistic Society report, 2009) 1 in every 100 child in UK is affected from autism. Boys are more vulnerable than girls, as much as 4 times more. This is proved in many researches one of them being the one conducted in Washington which states the reason for autism having a strong sex bias is because of higher levels of foetal testosterones which puts the fetus at risk. (Rowan, 2010). 20% of the children suffering from autism have been removed from normal school 15% of cases related to autism do get full time work in UK and are employed as well In June 2007 a survey was commissioned by the National Autistic Society which said that only 39% of people know that autism in not curable and 27% people think it affects only children. The shocking outcome of this research was that 39% of the surveyed people think that autistic people have special abilities in math or art. (National Autistic society (NAS), 2007) 83% of people with Asperger’s syndrome felt that most of the problems they face are because people don’t understand them. (NAS, 2009) Cellular and Tissue level view An article in Medical news today states that defect in neuroligin gene is responsible for disrupting neuron firing and cause autism. This is for the first time a cellular level of defect being identified and linked to autism. Neuroligins are part of synapses which connect neurons in the brain. Absence or defect of Neuroligin gene causes defect in Neruroligin in these synapses which cause disruption of neuron function. Neuroligins are responsible for maintaining a balance between excitatory and inhibitory synaptic functions (LeMoult, 2005). These experiments were done on rats but the significance and relation of this to autism is a recent discovery where we are able to understand autism much better at cellular level. Each neuron cell receives two different types of signals from the brain and the organ. Some signal neuron to fire which are called excitatory and some are inhibitory. It is said that a selective inhibitive loss in the neuron function is one of the main reason for development of autism. The fine tuning of neurological connection is spoiled due to absence of neuroligin and hence affecting the inhibitive signals. In a different study at university of California suggests that defects in ability to produce enough cellular energy which is due to oxidative stress and cumulative damage in the mitochondria may be the reason for autism. In another case of a big research carried out at cellular and tissue level in autistic children it was found that mitochondria is somewhere related to autism specifically in neurons. But it is still under research whether Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) affects the mitochondria or is it the mitochondrial dysfunction which leads to ASD (Science Daily, 2011). These defective mitochondria are more specifically found in white blood cells. The research found out mitochondrial dependent oxygen consumption which is impaired in peripheral blood lymphocytes. Hence the end result is the process of phosphorylation of ATP is hampered and hence there is oxidative stress inside the cell, due to which the mitochondrial data over replicates or is missing in few cases (Science Daily, 2011). Charles A. Nelson, PhD, Research Director of the Developmental Medicine Center at Children's, and his lab recorded resting EEG signals from the brains of infants. Results indicated high risk for developing autism exhibit different pattern of neural connectivity, though the relationship between entropy and the density of neural arbors which remains to be explored. The hypothesis was application of chaos theory and elector encephalogram to determine cases of autism at a very early age. (Science Daily, 2011). One more school of thought of autism specific in males is because of higher levels of foetal testosterone. RORA genes turn on many different genes in normal children. When there is high amount of testosterone in the cell, this effects functioning of RORA and hence of many other genes, neuroligin being one of it and other nerve protein producing genes (Rowan, 2010) Estimates of cases and effects – Statistics and epidemiology An article in Medical news today says that full blown autism in the US population can be estimated at around 1.5 per 1000. (The rate of Autism Spectrum Disorder is higher -- around 6 per 1000). But another study estimates the no. of cases to be 1 in 110 (CDC, 2011). The statistic might be different for different researches as the samples are different and measurement and statistical methods are different but the fact remains that autism is growing and research needs to keep pace with it. The referral patterns of autistic cases changed drastically from 1999 to 2000s due to the methods and techniques of registering cases. Boys are more prone to girls and statistical report suggests the ratio to be 4.3:1 and for cognitive impairment it is 2:1 with mental retardation and 5.5:1 without one (Croen LA, Daniels J et. al, 2007). About 10-15% of the cases are ‘Mendelian’ caused by a single gene modification, 25% to 70% of cases are believed to be mentally retarded and have understanding problems. ASD also occurs more in cases with parental history. The following is the figure which describes the cases in California per year over past few decades by age and birth years. Point to be noted here is that the occurrences have increased over a period of time from 1945 till date drastically. In US 1 in every 91 children has autism as per the report of American Academy Pediatrics report. CDC confirms that there are roughly 1 mn autism cases in USA currently. The ball park figure for economic impact of autism is believed to be $90 Bn but gets only 5% or less funding as compared to overall funding for other childhood diseases (Talk about curing autism, 2011) Treatment First and foremost would be the non medical treatment by giving him the needed attention, caring for him and understanding him psychologically. Medication can be taken for mood swings, hyperactivity and or self injurious tendency. Making dietary changes like giving non gluten food and less of protein from oat, wheat and rye will help them. Till a more fool proof explanation for causes and its relations with neurological factors comes, use of antioxidants and mitochondrial cofactors remains as a better option. Vitamin C, A and D are also helpful for behavioral control and general immunity. (NAS, 2010) To conclude, though a 100% sure shot treatment is unavailable at the moment, much has been done by our society to help autistic people find their rightful place in the society. Helping them to learn and earn, understanding their position in every situation and creating special bodies to help them emotionally and financially is increasing their life value by leaps and bounds. Medical science is also progressing and is hopeful to find a cure soon enough. References 1) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Community Report – ADDM Monitoring Network 2009 2) Prevalence of autism spectrum disorders—Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network, United States, 2006. MMWR Surveill Summ 2009;58 (NoSS-10) 3) CDC, 2011 retrieved from www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism, 25th Feb 2011 4) Simons L. (2009) Think differently – act positively public perceptions of autism, National Autistic Society, London 5) Rowan M. (2010), Regulation of activity-dependent ProSAp2 synaptic dynamics, Stanford University press 6) National Autistic Society survey report (2007), retrieved from www.autism.org.uk National Autistic Society 7) LeMoult C. (2005), Cellular defect that may contribute to Autism identified, TheRecord 25th February 2005, p 5 8) University of California - Davis Health System (2010, November 30). Children with autism have mitochondrial dysfunction, study finds. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 15, 2011, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2010/11/101130161521.htm 9) Children's Hospital Boston (2011, February 23). Using EEGs to diagnose autism spectrum disorders in infants: Machine-learning system finds differences in brain connectivity. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 15, 2011, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2011/02/110222082730.htm 10) Newschaffer C, Croen L. and Daniels J. et. al. (2007) The Epidemiology of Autism Spectrum Disorders Review in Advance Journal, ANRV305-PU28-21 11) State of California, Department of developmental services www.dds.ca.gov, 25th Feb 2011 12) Talk about curing autism, www.tacanow.org, 25th Feb 2011 13) Review of Autism Research: Causes and Epidemiology, Medical Research Council. London. (2002) 14) Barnard, J. et. al. (2003), Autism in Schools: Crisis or Challenge?, National Autistic society, London. 15) Batten, A et al (2006), Autism and education: the reality for families today. National Autistic society, London. 16) Redman, S et al (2009). Don't Write Me Off: Make the system fair for people with autism.The National Autistic Society, London. 17) Survey by Gfk NOP commissioned by National Autistic Society, 2007, UK 18) Researcher identifies cellular defect that may contribute to autism, Columbia University research cell. 28 Jan 2005. Web. Science. 19) Cure Autism Now Genius Award Recipient Discovers a New Role for the Gene Involved in Rett's Syndrome. January 2006. Web. 20) Molecular Psychiatry advance online publication 25 January 2011; doi: 10.1038/mp.2010.136 21) Mitochondrial dysfunction in autism spectrum disorders: a systematic review and meta-analysis. www.nature.com. 2007. 22) http://www.ambitiousaboutautism.org.uk Read More