Autism Is Not Associated With Childhood Infections

Autism Is Not Associated With Childhood Infections.
Infections during beginning or girlhood do not seem to raise the risk of autism, new research finds. Researchers analyzed start records for the 1,4 million children born in Denmark between 1980 and 2002, as well as two public 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 enquiry found that children who were admitted to the polyclinic for an communicable disease, either bacterial or viral, were more likely to receive a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder. However, children admitted to the convalescent home for non-infectious diseases were also more likely to be diagnosed with autism than kids who were never hospitalized, the retreat found.

And the researchers could point to no particular infection that upped the risk. They therefore conclude that boyhood infections cannot be considered a cause of autism. "We find the same relationship between hospitalization due to many different infections and autism," celebrated 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 distribute for precise infections and not provide such an overall pattern of association".

The study was published in the May originate of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder that is characterized by problems with collective interaction, verbal and nonverbal communication, and restricted interests and behaviors. The control 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 be left unclear, although it's believed both genetic and environmental factors contribute, said Dr Andrew Zimmerman, kingpin of medical delving at the Center for Autism and Related Disorders at Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore. Previous experimentation has suggested that children with autism are more likely to have immune system abnormalities, matchless some to theorize that autism might be triggered by infections.

Some parents of children with autism have also reported that their children have more normal 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 weighty infections such as meningitis or encephalitis.

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

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

Another reason kids with autism might be more probably 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 beg out medical care. More medical visits might also help prompt an autism diagnosis. "It could be that medical professionals guide the developmental problems in the child and refer the child further to a child psychiatrist".

Although this den found no link between autism and childhood infections, prenatal infections - particularly during the essential and second trimesters - may up the chances children will have autism, prior research has found. A bookwork published online April 23 in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders by the same aggregation 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 yanbu. Children whose mothers had a viral infection requiring hospitalization during the first place trimester had nearly three times the risk of a later autism diagnosis, according to that study.