Is Autism Inherited

Post Reply New Topic

If this is a "yes or no" question, then the answer is yes.

it's not a requirement,but it does make it more likely to have it shared in a family.
have read about Einsteins family in Thinking in pictures and the relatives mentioned are very spectrum like.

am also have a lot of ASD in family.
dad-aspergers>sister-not classic NT,has high intelligence and synthaesthia>am-Kanners>uncle-aspergers,dads' brothers' son-kanners.

am think that there is likely to be various causes to autism as a whole,and not just through inheriting it from family.
or perhaps some people do have relatives on the spectrum but they're too high functioning to be noticed as that.

good chance of it...

but the genetic mechanism is unknown.... but it does seem to run in families

My parents have about two traits each, and my sister is a pain in the rear end, but none of them are close to me on that scale. Dad has an encyclopaedic knowledge of military planes, and would make the worst diplomat on the planet. My mum is a perfectionist and the best accountant around. My sister despises any kind of authority, and, like me, has to be right about everything. Yet she was the one who pointed out my behaviour to me. Anyway, I would say it is possible but not a has to be situation.

Prior to 1980, at least under the DSM, you were either diagnosed with childhood schizophrenia (if you were a child) or with schizoid personality disorder (if you were an adult).

*Very interesting SOwl. In the UK in 1968 I was simply diagnosed as "hyper-active"

I myself was a victim of this problem. By today's standards, I should have been diagnosed with AS and comorbid OCD. Instead, I was diagnosed with childhood schizophrenia and was treated by the psychiatric establishment as if I were "psychotic" (including being given a series of eletroconvulsive therapies).

*Hey! I am sorry to hear that!! ! I was "treated" with phenobarbitone a barbiturate used for epilepsy and it was not until some years later that I was "offered" ECT. Ye Gods I shudder at the stupidity of this stuff.... I had diagnoses of schizophrenia > manic depression > boarderline PD > laziness (the last is not a joke FFS!)

Studies have shown that ASDs are (or at least can be) inherited. However, because no one was officially diagnosed as "autistic" (in the U.S.) prior to 1980, it can be difficult to trace back (to do "genograms," in the technical jargon).

*Same in the UK

Anecdotally, my father is, I believe, an Aspie. We also believe that my great uncle (my paternal grandmother's brother) was autistic.[/quote]

*My attempts to do the genealogy for my father's side of the family have shown that there are "traits". I have a pet theory that the scandenavian peoples harboured a genetic propensity for ADD/ASD and that is why they spread around the world from the 8th |Cent in the way they did, unproveable of course

*Peace

*Tog

I was only 11 (now 51) when I had the ECTs, so, unfortunately, I had no choice in the matter. My child psychiatrist, whom I still phone from time to time to see how he is doing (I don't usually hold grudges, and he is now quite elderly), committed me to a psychiatric hospital where I received about 8 ECTs.



Interesting. Well, certain conditions can predominate more in some populations than others.

I hope you are doing better now.

My Grandfather was a physics teacher, my father a nuclear engineer (and even got sent to 3 mile island 3 years b4 i was born). Indeed, me and my father are very alike in many ways, and I beleive any ASD is alot to do with genetics.

Yeah, and the problem was the DSM-III version of autism didn't actually even encompass the people it was used to diagnose. The "pervasive lack of contact with people" thing has been shown in studies to fit no (or virtually no) autistic children they can find, which may explain why it was dropped as a criterion. So it was only in 1987 with the DSM-III-R that an autistic person could be accurately diagnosed by the criteria, although it was possible before that to get an autism diagnosis if the doctor doing the diagnosing believed you had no responsiveness to others (even if your behavior was clearly responsive in some way).

you catch autism from rats. that's why if you ever see an autistic person sneeze, you should hold your breath and run as fast as you can.

And the term "infantile autism" was a little more than condescending, too. I think that came from Kanner.

Hmm...inherited asperger's? This would fit me perfectly. My dad has it, and so do I. We're basically the same person!

Tog Wrote: Prior to 1980, at least under the DSM, you were either diagnosed with childhood schizophrenia (if you were a child) or with schizoid personality disorder (if you were an adult).
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Tell me about it. I was diagnosed in the early 1960s as Autism/Childhood Schizophrenia. To make matters worse, they blamed my parents and sent them to a psychiatrist.

One psychologist in particular stood out in promoting his theory(Thank God we now know this is nonsense) that autism is caused by parenting

Dr. Bruno Bettelhiem (1903-1990) Bruno Bettelheim was an Austrian-American writer and child psychologist. Bettelheim developed his own theories on autism and is best known for his theory of the refrigerator mother. In his work The Empty Fortress(1967), Bettelheim wrote about three therapy sessions with children who had infantile autism. He claimed that their disorder was caused by having emotionally cold mothers. His theory was widely accepted, and for many years, parents (particularly mothers) were considered the problem behind autism.
http://www.articler.com/50420/History-O ... neers.html

He committed suicide in 1990 and there are allegations that he falsified some of his credentials. But this was the man during that time(apart from Freud) who had a big impact on early autism

I may have an uncle with AS, otherwise, I am the family fluke. My mom as some AS-ish traits, but she has severe OCD which I think accounts for her issues. She was socially normal before her OCD worsened, as OCD does with time and without treatment.

As for what I know of heredity, I'd have to say yeah, though I certainly cannot be a good sample of the autistic population - I'm only one family. My husband and I both have AS. Both of our children are on the autistic spectrum.

According to Fred Volkmar there is evidence that Autism comes from your dad's side. There is a direct correlation between the father having social problems or other psychological ones and the son having Autism.

I can look up the notes if you want, I have them.

Both of my children are, and I am. Seems unlikely that it would be the case with only an 8-10% chance of it, lol. hmmm

Knowing that emotionally neglected children can display autistic behaviour very similar to that of autistic children, this idea wasn't such nonsense as it is made out to be these days.