British Twins Study Says Autism is Genetic

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Autism is almost always caused by a child’s genes, a major study of British twins has found.

Scientists said that genes are responsible for as many as 98 per cent of cases – a higher proportion than previously thought.

The research, by King’s College London, also found the condition is highly inheritable.

Controversial research linking autism with the MMR jab has been widely discredited, but more recent concern has focused on the condition being fuelled by environmental factors such as pollution.
The team compared the behaviour of pairs of identical twins, who share all their DNA, and non-identical twins, who have only half their genes in common (file picture)

With cases of autism much more common today than in the past, many fear it is also being caused by modern lifestyles.

Estimates suggest that as many as one in 100 people in the UK now has autism.

But the researchers said their study suggested that lifestyle and environmental factors were a distant second to genetics.

The team compared the behaviour of pairs of identical twins, who share all their DNA, and non-identical twins, who have only half their genes in common.

They found the condition was far more common in identical twins than in non-identical ones. The study, in the journal JAMA Psychiatry, concluded that DNA was behind between 74 to 98 per cent of autism cases.

If genes are key, the recent rise in cases could be explained by more people being correctly diagnosed with the condition.

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cfchevygirl
Well, genetics is and always has been the most logical explanation. But, of course, moos who are so desperate to breed (for some reason), seem to think that it can't possibly be their genes that are defective, because of course that means that they shouldn't be breeding and we can't have that.