Autism Is Not Associated With Childhood Infections

Autism Is Not Associated With Childhood Infections.
Infections during dawn or puberty do not seem to raise the risk of autism, new research finds. Researchers analyzed blood records for the 1,4 million children born in Denmark between 1980 and 2002, as well as two citizen registries that keep track of infectious diseases. They compared those records with records of children referred to psychiatric wards and later diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder.

Of those children, almost 7400 were diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. The cramming found that children who were admitted to the health centre for an contagious disease, either bacterial or viral, were more likely to receive a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder. However, children admitted to the sickbay for non-infectious diseases were also more likely to be diagnosed with autism than kids who were never hospitalized, the look found.

And the researchers could point to no particular infection that upped the risk. They therefore conclude that minority infections cannot be considered a cause of autism. "We find the same relationship between hospitalization due to many different infections and autism," distinguished lead study author Dr Hjordis Osk Atladottir, of the departments of epidemiology and biostatistics at the Institute of Public Health, University of Aarhus in Denmark. "If there were a causal relationship, it should be closest for restricted infections and not provide such an overall pattern of association".

The study was published in the May emerge of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder that is characterized by problems with societal interaction, verbal and nonverbal communication, and restricted interests and behaviors. The currency of autism seems to be rising, with an estimated 1 in 110 children affected by the disorder, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Despite significant effort, the causes of autism wait unclear, although it's believed both genetic and environmental factors contribute, said Dr Andrew Zimmerman, manager of medical experimentation at the Center for Autism and Related Disorders at Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore. Previous dig into has suggested that children with autism are more likely to have immune system abnormalities, chief some to theorize that autism might be triggered by infections.

Some parents of children with autism have also reported that their children have more habitual infections. While a few studies have shown children with autism may suffer slightly more ear and respiratory infections compared to normally developing children, others found no such connection. In addition, there are anecdotal reports of children developing autism after consequential infections such as meningitis or encephalitis.

In the study, researchers searched for any connecting between those selective illnesses, as well as a host of others, including bacterial, viral and fungal infections, and respiratory illnesses, herpes virus and urinary lot infections, specifically. They came up meaningless handed. "Yes, there is an increased rate of hospitalization preceding the diagnosis of autism, but it doesn't sustain a causal relationship between autism and infections".

There is a wide range of reasons why children with autism may be more liable to to be hospitalized for an illness, the study authors said. For example, autistic children could be more prostrate to physical illnesses, either due to autism or other medical conditions. Parents of children with autism often report that their children are prone to gastrointestinal problems, such as chronic diarrhea and constipation. Some estimates put the troop of kids with autism and gastrointestinal difficulties at 40 percent.

Another reason kids with autism might be more inclined to to be hospitalized for infectious or other illnesses is that their parents are worried about their child's development and are therefore more likely to hope out medical care. More medical visits might also help prompt an autism diagnosis. "It could be that medical professionals behold the developmental problems in the child and refer the child further to a child psychiatrist".

Although this consider found no link between autism and childhood infections, prenatal infections - particularly during the cardinal and second trimesters - may up the chances children will have autism, prior research has found. A cram published online April 23 in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders by the same congregation of researchers found a link between autism and hospitalization for maternal viral infection in the first trimester, such as flu, and bacterial infection in the subordinate trimester neosizeplus com. Children whose mothers had a viral infection requiring hospitalization during the beginning trimester had nearly three times the risk of a later autism diagnosis, according to that study.