autism-fyi

[Guest guest]

Children born to fathers of advancing age are at significantly higher risk of

developing autism compared to children born to younger fathers, according a

comprehensive study published today that offers surprising new insight into one

of the most feared disorders of the brain.

The new finding comes at a time when there is great controversy over autism in

the United States; a recent surge in diagnoses has fueled speculations about

various possible causes of the disorder. For scientists, both the origins and

potential treatment for the disorder remain a mystery.

With every decade of advancing age starting with men in their teens and

twenties, the new study found, older fathers pose a growing risk to their

children when it comes to autism -- unhappy evidence that the medical risks

associated with late parenthood are not just the province of older mothers, as

much previous research has suggested.

Of especial concern is the finding that the risk for autism not only increases

with paternal age, but appears to accelerate.

When fathers are in their thirties, children have about one and a half times the

risk of developing autism as children of fathers in their teens and twenties.

Compared to the offspring of the youngest fathers, children of fathers in their

forties have more than five times the risk of developing autism, and children of

fathers in their fifties have more than nine times the risk.

Autism is a developmental disorder that is often characterized by social and

verbal problems. It becomes manifest early in childhood and is associated with

learning deficits and other problems. Many cases are diagnosed shortly after

children enter school, where differences between kids become too painfully

obvious to ignore.

A wide variety of interventions are increasingly available for autistic

children, and early behavioral interventions have been said to help with

outcomes and functioning. There is, however, no cure for the disorder, and

scientists are still not sure about the biological roots of the disorder.

The new study suggests an intriguing new avenue for research, because it

suggests that genetic traits passed along by fathers, as opposed to mothers, may

play some significant role in creating susceptibility to autism. Several other

studies have suggested older parents of both sexes are at greater risk of having

children with various developmental disorders. Three earlier studies looking at

the relationship between paternal age and autism have produced mixed results;

the new study is the most rigorous analysis conducted to date.

The study was based on an enormous sample of 17- year-olds -- nearly all the men

and three-quarters of the women of that age found over a six-year period in

Israel, as they came of draft age. In all, data from 378,891 men and women were

analyzed.

Since all Israeli citizens have a unique identification number, and the draft

process routinely calls for listing the identification numbers of parents,

researchers were able to develop a large-scale map that allowed them to

determine the age of both parents for 132,271 draft candidates. They then

compared that information against medical evaluations conducted by the draft

board for autism and other disorders for those same candidates.

Abraham Reichenberg at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York along with

several others at research institutions in the United States and Israel found a

significant relationship between paternal age and autism, even after accounting

for other factors such as mothers' age and socioeconomic status.

Children of fathers who were between 15 and 29 years of age had a risk of around

6 in 10,000 of developing autism. Children of fathers in their thirties had a

risk of 9 in 10,000. Children of fathers in their forties had a risk of 32 in

10,000, and children of fathers who were older than 50 had a risk of 52 in

10,000.

In a paper published today in the Archives of General Psychiatry, the

researchers said that the number of cases of autism among families with the

oldest dads was too small to lead to definitive conclusions about that group,

but there was little doubt about the overall trend. The only question they said

is whether the risk accumulates at an accelerating rate with advancing paternal

age, as the numbers in this study suggest.

Scientists in the United States are increasingly thinking about autism in terms

of a spectrum of problems, which is why they have coined the term autism

spectrum disorders . The federal government estimates that the risk for autism

spectrum disorders in the United States is around 3.4 for every 1,000 children

between the ages of 3-to-10.

Whether that number is on the rise has been hotly contested; better outreach and

diagnostic efforts may be finding children who would previously have gone

undetected. Enduring disparities in access to healthcare complicates the

picture. While the medical complexities of autism are present in Israel, concern

over disparities is mitigated to some extent because Israel has universal health

insurance that guarantees equal access to care.

The Israeli military draft board's medical diagnostic system does not

differentiate between conditions on the autism spectrum, which includes

everything from autism to Asperger's syndrome, Rett syndrome and what are known

as pervasive developmental disorders.

Autistic people can be unresponsive in social situations, or focused intently on

a single task or object for long periods. While some parents recognize their

babies seem different from a very young age, U.S. government researchers also

say that sometimes engaging and babbling babies can suddenly turn " silent,

withdrawn, self-abusive, or indifferent to social overtures. "

In recent years, concern and controversy have grown -- despite a lack of

conclusive evidence -- that mercury in children's vaccines produces toxicity

that leads to autism.

While the link between older fathers and autistic children is likely genetic,

the researchers who conducted the new study also acknowledged the possibility

that unknown social factors could simultaneously be causing men to delay

parenthood while independently increasing autism rates.

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