Autism Spectrum Disorder, Neuro-developmental Disorders, Psychiatric Disorders and changing views

SciShow Video

0:10:  Autism Spectrum Disorder is a Diverse Group.

0:41:  Historically, Autism was diagnosed in people who were:

• especially sensitive to stimuli,
• were drawn to routines,
• repeated certain words and movements,
• get totally consumed with an object,
• didn't use language or
• didn't use language to communicate with other people.

0:55:  1994 DSM and History of Asperger's Disorder

2:40:  Pervasive Developmental Disorders --- had overlapping symptoms with people diagnosed with Autism Disorder

0:10:  Autism Spectrum Disorder is a Diverse Group

0:41:  Historically, Autism was diagnosed in people who were:

• especially sensitive to stimuli,
• were drawn to routines,
• repeated certain words and movements,
• get totally consumed with an object,
• didn't use language or
• didn't use language to communicate with other people.
  

0:55:  1994 DSM and History of Asperger's Disorder

2:40:  Pervasive Developmental Disorders --- had overlapping symptoms with people diagnosed with Autism Disorder

2:55:  2013 DSM 5 put Autism Disorder and Pervasive Developmental Disorders under Autism Spectum Disorder

4:10:   Genetic underpinnings of Autism Spectrum Disorders also appear associated with Schizophrenia and ADHD [See also World Psychiatry:  New insights from the last decade of research in psychiatric genetics: discoveries, challenges and clinical implications (2023)].

• "Long recognized to be heritable, recent evidence shows that psychiatric disorders are influenced by thousands of genetic variants acting together. Most of these variants are commonly occurring, meaning that every individual has a genetic risk to each psychiatric disorder, from low to high."
  

[I'm slipping in "Maternal Immune Activation" because I think it is an important part of the story.   See Nature Reviews Neurology:  Maternal immune activation and neuroinflammation in human neurodevelopmental disorders (2021)

5:10:  Epigenetic Changes

5:20:  DNA Methylation

6:27:  SciShow:  "Despite the vast spectrum of autism, these researchers found that different manifestations of the disorder had the same DNA methylation patterns."

7:03:  Age of the father  -- over 40 [Source of epigenetic changes due to mutations in sperm.  Val's Take:  I think this includes both chronological age and biological age.]

SciShow
Autism Sprectrum Disorder

Kings College London
Thinking Twice About ADHD and Autism Spectrum Disorder

The King's College London video raises more questions about how distinct some of our categories are.  Here, significant overlap is found between ADHD and Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Cont.  SciShow Video notes

7:30:  Immune System:  Mother's Autoimmune Disease [Another source of epigenetic changes]:   

• Several reports from Europe and North America say that  people who developed in the womb of a mother with an auto-immune disease are more likely to be diagnosed with autism, with some specific diseases increasing up to 80%.
• Thyroid disease is particularly relevant. 
• Pregnant women with autoimmune diseases are thought to make more antibodies than pregnant women without autoimmune diseases
• Further, pregnant women with autoimmune diseases made different antibodies than pregnant women made without such autoimmune diseases.
• The antibodies target proteins in the baby's brain which could make the baby's brain inflamed and change the way it develops.

9:00:  Autism is not just a white, male issue.

10:30:  One study found that autistic people could communicate information as effectively as non-autistic people, but there is mutual misunderstanding when autistic and non-autistic people try to communicate with people outside their group.  [Val's Take:  Autism Spectrum Disorder is a BIG Group so I think it might not always breakdown that neatly -- but I do think there are Double Empathy issues].

14:15:  Mirror Neurons and adaptability