Fathers age linked to Autism rates

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Generally, people with higher education get married at later stages of their life. Highly educated families have more awareness about their children's psychology. Thus, children of highly educated families are more frequently diagnosed. Apart from genetics, data about fathers age can be explained by this way.

It will be interesting to see how results hold up in more heterogeneous populations with diverse social economic status.


TheSunAlsoRises

A very important remark. Which psychiatrist diagnoses autistic children in poor districts of Ethiopia? WrongPlanet provides diversity to a certain extent, however even WrongPlanet is mainly formed by people from USA, England, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Holland etc. What about less developed countries?

When I was born, my father was 54. But I heard that there is little if any connection between fathers age and autism.

I would have to read the study BUT IF i pull a large random study of children with Autism or Schizophrenia; i should find a correlation between paternal age(higher) and number of children with Autism/Schizophrenia(both should be Higher).

One of the key variables missing to determine causation would be(de novo genes).

That is, unless there is variability in causation.....

TheSunAlsoRises

I also think that men with autistic traits get married and have children later.

My father was 29 when I was born, 28 when half of me mutating around was in a sperm cell.

and outcomes.

TheSunAlsoRises

"The new investigation, led by the Icelandic firm Decode Genetics, analyzed genetic material taken from blood samples of 78 parent-child trios, focusing on families in which parents with no signs of a mental disorder gave birth to a child who developed autism or schizophrenia. This approach allows scientists to isolate brand-new mutations in the genes of the child that were not present in the parents. "

IF Autism is included along with Schizophrenia as a mental disorder then we are discussing undetectable traits or statistically insignificant traits, a broad autism phenotype.

TheSunAlsoRises

* Surely, they would test both parents for schizophrenia and Autism including the possibility of genetic heritability factored in with paternal age.

TheSunAlsoRises

BAP people usually present with no signs of a mental disorder.

My father was diagnosable when he was a kid, but probably not as an adult, so he displays no signs of a mental disorder, while sharing many cognitive traits of autism with me and some behavioral traits as well. These behavioral traits are not severe enough to be within the range of a mental disorder, and they are only noticeable to people who have been around him for awhile.

I agree. And they're not helping! There are still a lot of people looking for that answer as to "why", and I feel that is unhealthy. Yes, people want to find a cure, or find out what causes autism so that preventative measures can be taken, but it only causes more grief for the families who haven't come to terms with the diagnosis yet.

My mom called me last night and told me that they were going to do a news segment on autism, and that I should watch. So I did. My husband (who was 37 when our son was born, I was 27) walked in just as they started talking about mutated sperm. Joy. He says, "so this is my fault". He says he knows it's not, but now I wonder.

For me, I didn't really have that grieving period upon diagnosis. I was just wondering if he'd get picked on in school. I've already dealt with kids bullying him, his own neighbors and supposed playmates, no less. I won't tolerate that at school. He goes into his second year of preschool this year. Luckily that environment is controlled. But anyways, with regards to grief: I grieve each time he wears me out, and is suspended from the ceiling and I can't reach him. Other than that, it's whatever. My kid is autistic. He's still going to take over the world. I consider his autism a boost, to be honest. Kid is wicked clever.

Autism linked to fathers age.
Surely scientist would have recognized by now the connection with the fathers age if this was the case. How hard would it be to see that most of the fathers were middle aged or older?

I see in this forum that some fathers were very young when conceiving their children, my father was 19.
This cancels out yet another theory given to us by scientist eager to publish their findings without any great thought behind it. Where do they get the go ahead to publish stuff like this anyway?
We are so loose with information; it’s difficult to distinguish the truth sometimes between those just trying to make a name for themselves (Grasping at straws) and fact.
How long have we been going around preaching that the universe started with a "Big bang" Now the same experts are telling us it was more of a "Big bounce"? The universe was formed out of a black hole.

Nobody knows what causes autism or even if there is a cause.
People often have problems with expressing themselves, some people don’t know how to be. These are two factors behind autism along with stress that Mr Joe average also lives with.
Can the experts explain where our ability to be comes from; can they explain where expression comes from? The truth is they don’t have a clue, why, because other than what they can see (The brain and behaviour patterns) they don’t have much else to go with. There is so much more to the mind than meets the eyes, understanding this seems to be beyond most scientists.
How long did it take us learn the world was round and not flat, or that thoughts came from our head and not the heart as once believed.

They say there are more questions than answers. Just because we haven’t found the answer doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist, we just don’t know it yet. It won't be a scientest who finds all the answers behind autism, it will be someone who lives with the condition, someone much smarter.

My dad was 27 when I was born, while my NT brother was born when my dad was 30. My brother was 29 when he had my niece, and she's very much NT. My parents got married in their early 20's, so if anyone was aspie, it doesn't mean a thing. If anything, even NT's are marrying a few years later than their parents, and it's mostly because people want to focus on finishing their education and getting a career started before settling down. I also think one reason people are having children later in life is because of the recession, as when people are facing layoffs or are unemployed, they're less likely to have a child they really couldn't afford without help.

she was 21 he was 23, he liked trains and she wanted to help animals.

My father was in his mid-20s when I was born, I have Asperger's.

He was in his upper 30s when my brother was born. No Asperger's.

Wrong. It's genetic. Get it, neurotypicals!

That's a bit like that

"If you drive a car the risk for cancer increases."

The research showed that if you drive a car the risk for getting cancer increases from 1 out of a million to 1 out of 500 000.
That's an increase by 200%! Ergo "Driving a car causes cancer" instead of the actual result (if the statistics are good enough)
"Driving a car can cause cancer"

Well, a question remains : Is this relevant? And what is the percentage of people that have an old father? Seems to be a small amount.

For me: I got it from my mother. And that is not a mutation. Maybe it was long long time ago, but even my grandmas mum was a similar person.