Autism is actually two separate diseases (new research)

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I saw this in the news the other day. The article is pretty vague and focuses on the symptoms of severe classic Autism. I haven't been able to find any more detailed articles about the research.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2003/mar/16/highereducation.health

Here is the citation for the actually article, as listed on Robert Plomin's webpage, in case anyone feels like tracking down a copy:
Angelica Ronald, Lee M Butcher, Sophia Docherty, Oliver S P Davis, Leonard C Schalkwyk, Ian W Craig, Robert Plomin (2010) 'A Genome-Wide Association Study of Social and Non-Social Autistic-Like Traits in the General Population Using Pooled DNA, 500 K SNP Microarrays and Both Community and Diagnosed Autism Replication Samples' Behavior Genetics, 40 (1), pp. 31-45.
[Article in print Journal]

Any thoughts or opinions? The idea that autism is made up both social and non-social symptoms and that symptoms vary from person to person is nothing new, but from the title of the Ronald, et al. article, it sounds like there is much more to this research than the Guardian article suggests.

Sounds like a theory looking for traction. It doesn't sound like this is conclusive yet.

Stopped reading at this: Autism, the devastating mental illness that affects thousands of UK children every year

Yeah I frowned at that sentence and feel somewhat annoyed with it!

Last edited by Nim on 16 Mar 2012, 12:00 am, edited 2 times in total.

I don't particularly trust autism researchers who call autism a "mental illness". The correct term is "developmental disorder". It might be a slight distinction, but a professional needs to be able to tell the difference. It's a little like the way you might expect a professional cat breeder to know the difference between a Siamese and a Himalayan. If they don't, you start wondering whether they're really all that knowledgeable about cats.

It says the article is dated 2003, nearly 10 years old.

The question is:

Do you find individuals who have the clinically disabling obsessive and repetitive behaviors of autism, by themselves?

and

Do you find individuals who have the clinically disabling social deficits of autism, by themselves?

I don't see it. All I see are people with both of these.

Saw that too. There must have been less awareness as autism as a neurological disorder back then.

Or the writer of the article did some very sloppy research.

Either way I haven't heard about any current research on this.

That is because you haven't looked hard enough. Try looking here:

http://royalsociety.org/events/2011/aut ... -disorder/

Autism is not two separate 'diseases' but it does display a triad of symptoms.

Each of the three areas of impairment can be found individually in varying degrees of severity and if you do large scale statistical analysis of populations you find a big 'blip' where all three areas of impairment are found together in an individual.

That statistical blip is called autism.

What I see is those with the social deficits of autism still have the repetitive behaviors of autism. There's various levels of such for each, of course, but they have both.

I've yet to see someone with just the social deficits of autism. If society did too, there'd be a a separate disorder for it.

I'd also add that sensory integration disorder is equally as important as the social and repetitive domains; sensory integration can actually explain many of the symptoms in the social and repetitive domains (there's theories out there, clinical papers, that actually go along these lines too, though I haven't read them). So, that's 3 going by this theory.

Nice. ^^ I'd call that a very objective statement.


I do think there is a difference between "there's something wrong with them that needs to be fixed" and "they behave differently to the norm".

And yeah, you expect a professional to be a bit more precise. That statement sounded a lot like, "Ugh, isn't that horrible?!". Small town talk...

I don't like either of these terms. I only use "neuropsychiatric disorder." I feel that covers everything in the DSM and says that something has a psychiatric component and is brought about by differences in the brain.

I greatly dislike calling ASDs only "neurodevelopmental disorders." My view is that ALL of the DSM disorders are problems with neurodevelopment. You just may not see most of those problems until the late teens/early adulthood when the prefrontal cortex fully "turns on." My opinion is that saying "mental illness" for things like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder keeps stigma and doesn't spread awareness of the neuroscience behind these disorders. And saying "neurodevelopmental disorder" for things like ASDs doesn't admit that there is a very real psychiatric component. If ASDs were simply a problem with neurodevelopment only, it would be in the same category as disorders like epilepsy and cerebral palsy.

I've heard terms used like that in the UK before so I don't care. IME the English tend to cut to the chase with their terminology lol.

I've thought about that for awhile and I've seen it said here that AS is more likely actual autism and LFA is a different disorder.

Actually, the answer is yes to both of those.

I have just the social stuff, no significant repetitive behaviours. I don't believe that the repetitive behaviours are an inherent part of the condition so much as a reaction to stimuli.