Researchers from the United States have discovered that there are two biologically different types of autism. It is believed that this could lead to more individuated types of treatment for children who have an autism spectrum disorder, based upon which type of autism the child has.
A group of researchers from the University of California Davis’s MIND Institute, in Sacramento, California, are behind this new discovery about autism. They have been working on a longitudinal study called the Autism Phenome Project. The project began in 2006.
They looked a group of 350 children who were between the ages of two years old, and three and a half years of age. The researchers focused on studying the children’s brain growth, environmental exposure, and genetic make-up.
The results of the study were interesting. There ended up being two groups. All of the children in one group had enlarged brains. All the children in that group were male. The other group of children had immune systems that were not functioning in the way that it should be. Essentially, the researchers claim, this means that there are two biologically different kinds of autism.
These exciting findings mean that in the future, there could be more than one type of treatment for autism. Theoretically, a child could come into a clinic, and be diagnosed not only with an autism spectrum disorder, but with a specific strain of autism.
Once it is known which type of autism a child has, it would be possible for the child to receive treatment that focuses on helping that particular type of autism. Kids who have autism and a malfunctioning immune system would be enrolled in a course of treatment that focuses on strengthening their immune system. Kids who have autism and an enlarged brain could instead receive a course of treatment that is related to synaptic functioning in the brain.
It is possible that there are even more than two types of autism. More studies need to be done to find out more about that. The discovery that there are at least two different types of autism is being compared to the discovery that there was more than one type of cancer.
Since then, people have been developed many kinds of treatments for cancer that doctors can choose from based on the specific type of cancer that a person happens to have. Different types of treatments for each kind of autism could result making it easier to help children who have autism to overcome their difficulties with communication and socialization.
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