The team at the King’s College London reported that 181 teenagers had autism, but identical twins seemed to have a much higher risk where one of the twins had autism since they shared the same DNA. JAMA Psychiatry was told by the researchers that there was involvement of hundreds of genes. However, environmental factors were not ruled out completely. In each pair, both twins were raised in the same household by their parents.

Increased autism awareness

Diagnosing autism can be very tricky. This is because of the fact that it isn’t just a single disorder but rather a spectrum of various conditions and the severity widely varies from one person to the other. The lead researcher noted that even though it isn’t perfect, all the evidence seemed to point at genes playing a much bigger role in autism unlike what was thought previously. According to the findings, there is a suggestion that the environmental factors are essentially smaller and this is very importance considering that some parents are largely concerned of whether certain things such as high pollution could cause autism.

Some people seem to think that there is a big environmental component involved since autism is becoming increasingly common in the recent years but the fastness in which this happened ruled out the probable cause as being genetics. Now, the main consensus is the increased rise in diagnosis, which is associated with an increase in the awareness of this condition.

Full lives

The lead researcher, Dr Happe was quick to note that what was previously referred to as learning disability is now being diagnosed correctly as autism. In addition, she noted that many scientists are working hard to ascertain the precise genes involved in autism as well as whether they have been inherited or not. She noted that there is likelihood that there are many genes that cause autistic traits. Autism is essentially a story of genes that is highly complex and it is not only interaction of genes but non- genetic factors are involved as well.

This twin sample based on a large population is essentially very significant considering that it helps us a lot understanding the role played by genetics when it comes to autism as well as opening the possibility of families being able to understand the condition that they share much better. But even with this being the case, exactly what causes autism is still to be known. Being able to access the right type of support that will make autism patients together with their careers and families lead a full lives is the most important thing. In UK alone, there are 100 people estimated to be living with autism and there are four times many boys than girls diagnosed with autism. Autism has no cure but there are numerous interventions available.