Question

Define autism and discuss its causes

Answer 1

Autism is a type of neurodevelopmental disorder with onset in developmental period. According to DSM V, autism is persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction across multiple contexts such as:

1. deficits in social-emotional reciprocity, e.g., abnormal social approach, failure of normal back-and-forth conversation, reduced sharing and failure to start or respond to social interactions. The person is unable to initiate and/or continue the conversation and don't like sharing thoughts, and emotions.

2. deficits in nonverbal communication behaviours used for social interactions, e.g., communication is disintegrated, poor eye contact and inappropriate bodily gestures as well as the inability to understand nonverbal gestures.

3. deficits in developing, maintaining, and understanding relationships, e.g., problems in adjusting behaviour according to the social context, difficulty in making friends and having no interest in peers.

Another important feature is restricted and repetitive behaviour and speech, e.g., lining or flipping objects, echolalia, idiosyncratic phrases.

Though no specific cause for autism in known till now but there are certain factors which can trigger it. For example genetic factors, no specific gene is related to cause autism but it has been found that certain syndromes, e.g., Rett syndrome or fragile X syndrome. Genetic mutation is supposed to be one of the reasons. Since it is a neurodevelopmental disorder so anything which hampers development, e.g., alcohol intake during pregnancy, certain drugs, or premature birth can cause it.

Environmental factors are said to influence if the child is genetically vulnerable to autism, viral infections, and medications too can trigger autism.