Yet Another Theory About What Causes Autism
October 4, 2007 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
I was not alone in recently receiving an enigmatic, and (if I may so), sinister-toned email from one “Adam Smith,” making the claim that the rise in the prevalence of autism is caused by the “the mixing of different ethnic groups.” “Smith” even asserts that “Autism is caused by the mixing of different ethnic groups.”
Orac at Respectful Insolence makes it clear that “‘Smith’ has it all wrong”:
What’s almost certainly bothering this “Adam Smith” is not the “mixing” of Russians with Dutch or Spanish with Irish or French with British. What is almost certainly really bothering “Adam Smith” is the influx of all those nasty dark-skinned races into Europe and the increasing acceptance of mixed race marriages (or “miscegenation,” as Smith no doubt would have preferred to phrase it if he weren’t trying ineffectively to mask his racism).
Orac captures the reason that I found “Smith” ’s email so chilling. My son is Irish-American and Chinese American—and I sense at least a whiff of “yellow peril” in “Smith” ’s theory.
And, it is rather the case that the current numbers on the prevalence of autism may not be from an ethnically diverse population. Yesterday it was announced that the University of Southern California is receiving in NIH grant to increase the ethnic diversity of the Autism Genetic Resource Exchange (AGRE), the world’s largest database for autism research. Said Clara Lajonchere, research assistant professor at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering and vice president of clinical programs for Autism Speaks:
The NIH grant will double the number of families in AGRE and expand the data beyond genetic and clinical profiles to include what the researchers call phenomics: the systematic study of the outward physical and behavioral marks of autism.
The research will be organized under a new Center for Genomic and Phenomic Studies in Autism. One goal of the new center, said Thomas Lehner, chief of the NIH Genomics Research Branch, is to better distinguish among the many forms of autism and to explore the differences in their genetic profiles.
“We are trying to establish a correspondence between gene and phenotype, with the phenotype being autism and its many manifestations,” Lehner said. “A unique feature of this grant is the extensiveness of phenotyping. This is one of our largest projects, if not the largest.”
Autism is an umbrella term that includes several phenotypes, Lehner said, some of which are poorly understood. A better picture of the phenotypes of autism could provide a basis for future drug trials and give clinicians better methods for measuring a patient’s response to treatment, he added.
AGRE’s expansion will focus on recruiting an ethnically diverse group of families, since Caucasians have been over-represented in genetic studies to the point that diagnostic tools are unreliable for minorities, Lajonchere said.
“There are few focused genetic studies that directly examine minority populations,” she said.
Orac gives “Smith” “‘credit’ (such as it is) for having come up with the most bizarre ‘real’ cause of autism” yet to be heard—-I’d second the “bizarre”; more than that is perhaps better left unspoken.
Oooh! I want the title for “most bizarre” Autism Theory!
I heard that autism is caused by rubbing a balloon on your head to produce static electricity. Eh? Think about it? All that electrical energy HAS to cause autism, right???
Good grief- where do these people come from?
Phenotypical deviance actually decreases with increases in the size of the gene pool. This is because, by increasing the number of alleles on offer, the probability of any one offspring getting two copies of the same mutant allele decreases. This is not high-level knowledge. It is the reason people worry about the dangers of inbreeding and the underpinning for anti-incest laws.
It would seem that Mr. Smith is not very good at this sort of abstract thought. He might want to consider either taking additional courses or finding a new pastime.
I’ve been wondering if I should keep quiet about this, since I’d probably just be providing information that could be exploited by the crank in question, and also because I’d freak Kristina out further; but in my surveys of the autism literature I have encountered evidence of a recent immigration connection.
Mind you, the plausible explanation is that recent immigrants into a country have higher levels of stress, so this would relate to a finding such as the recent one relating to hurricanes and autism. This is in fact what is suggested by Harper & Williams (1976).
If you search PubMed for “autism immigration” and “autism foreign” you’ll see what I mean. The data is old and not that convincing, but there’s a trend from several studies.
There’s also a prevalence study from Singapore which cites “a high frequency of caregivers who are foreign maids” and “the use of multiple languages” which I thought I would mention even though it’s unrelated.
There might be an interesting implication of these data on the recent pesticide connection study. Remember that in that study they found that kids of women working in California farms had high rates of autism? I wonder if women working in California farms tend to be recent immigrants to the US.
Having posted alongside other European autistics, I know that his hypothesis doesn’t even have a premise.
No, really. I think he’s right. You know, all of those evil foreign races entering decent society. Never mind the gap in years there has been people have existed of mixed race before the “autism epidemic”, and never mind autism exists in much more homogeneous cultures. That’s clearly it!
*rolls eyes*
Seriously, this was coming. I suppose, when talking about mysterious causes, that someone from the KKK was bound to talk about the “evil foreigners”. However, I wouldn’t chalk it up to the “weirdest” theory regarding autism, because it is facing a whole lot of competition for the title.
On that note, I’d like to introduce my theory regarding the epidemic of autism. You see, there’s this deranged magical fairly with a red pen. She flies around the world, and occasionally sadistically flies into the noses of sleeping pregnant mothers and pokes the unborn child with the red pen. The red ink in the child then makes it so that every harmful substance on the planet will be naturally attracted to the child, including (but most certainly not limited to) brass, lead paint, various metals, various non-metals, gases used in neon signs, radioactive chemicals, Tabasco sauce, some green stuff, and a mutated watermelon seed. Thus, we should treat the kid with anti-fungals.
Cliff
Have you corrected the recent immigrant data for economic differences? In cases of milder autism, people with more money are more likely to stay off the radar by getting services privately. Any stats that come from publicly administered services tend to over represent groups with less disposable income.
Joseph, I’m fine with being freaked out! Better to combat ignorance on this level with actual evidence and research. I have been wondering the same about that California study.
Well, there are people escaping their countries of origin for economic reasons, educational “opportunity” reasons and quite plausibly “philosophical” reasons. South Korea was notorious for a while, denying autism in their country (they have a different label for the same traits). Though there was evidence that there were Korean immigrants that were in fact autistic. I have read complaints about certain countries denying autism, denying services.
I will dispute the notion that the poor are overrepresented in studies. Anecdotal evidence imo shows that the poor are less informed about autism or developmental delays in general and may be less inclined to seek services. Most of the parents I know that receive free services provided by the state are middle class and upper middle class. That they supplement those services with privately paid-for treatments doesn’t take them “off the radar”. The wealthier people I run across know the ins and outs of gov’t-sponsored “freebies” more than most.
Well, as the father of two children that are African-American/Caucasian (one of whom is autistic), I originally thought that issues of race would be the biggest things that I had to deal with as they grew up.
As Buddy Boy started school, it became obvious that getting proper supports for him as an autistic person had taken center stage.
Now it appears that I have to go back to worrying about close minded cranks with hoods.
At least I was left off the e-mail distribution list.
Joe
I hear you saying that the poor are overrepresented in the “autism epidemic.” Don’t you think, though, that the biomed doctors and other “alternative therapies” are aimed more toward the more affluent families?
Children in South Korea have been diagnosed with reactive attachment disorder instead of autism, which is seen as carrying a greater stigma that affects the whole family (see this article from the Guardian). And researchers from Johns Hopkins University have suggested that those who use “Western-developed tools in China” for screening for ASDs need “to culturally modify the tools a great deal and modify them according to geographic region.” (IMFAR abstract)
Have you corrected the recent immigrant data for economic differences?
Generally minorities tend to be diagnosed less often (or so it seems.) That’s why the data on first-generation immigrants is a bit surprising.
Hmmm, so how does he explain my son’s autism? We live in Alabama and although I do not directly know of any gene pool “mixing” in mine or husband’s family, we probably have the shallowest gene pool in the world.
These people are insane!
I hope that Adam Smith never had so much as a bit part in a movie or on TV, if he did we shall start seeing him on the talk show circuit.
Odd how historic names appeal to some sorts of people.
Were the women in the California study working in the farms or living near the farms? I thought it was the latter.
You’re right, Matt. It’s women who lived near farms.
They do suggest that a potential confound is that the mothers were disproportionally employed in agriculture, but they didn’t have data on this.
http://www.ehponline.org/members/2007/10168/10168.pdf
Oooo and there was me thinking I’d been personally selected for that gobbledegook.
I assume that the gentleman is not familiar with WASPs, white Anglo Saxon Protestants. Curiously I don’t think they were Protestants and Anglo Saxons fizzled out around 1093 in England, not that I’m much of a historian.
Hope he doesn’t buzz us again!
Cheers
If so, perhaps under another under another moniker—-I won’t name any names.
I just have to add here that ASDs (in the milder form of hyperlexia) have been running rampant in my totally-european-american branch of the family for 3 generations now. Two other branches of the family that are asian-american, however, are entirely ASD-free.
There was a study done in California that found autism to be higher among immigrant families, I suppose immigrant families are more likely to be multi-ethnic!
I have a therory of what causes Autism, if when you initially found out you were pregnant, that you were not happy, not sure or any other negative feeling. If you had a very emotionally stressful pregnancy. If your childs father abused alcohol or drugs(if no, did the grandparents of the child). Did you have a tramatic, stressful birth? I believe these factors can also weaken the childs immune system so when they have either vaccines or antibiotics, it can cause more problems, i would be very interested in anyone contacting me who has answered yes(or no)to these questions. As i am sure like me we would all like to know why this has happened to our children, my e-mail is michelle0471@hotmail.co.uk
No sadness, no stressful pregnancy, no stressful delivery, no family history of alcohol abuse, nothing significant. Wish it were that easy!
How about maternal immunizations in years preceeding conception? Being a nurse, I had Hep B vac and several boosters a few years prior. Have always wondered….
l belive it is caused by drugs an alcohol special to
those who are recist.l have never seen this type of disease in africa.em sorry but we dont have it
been working in hospital 4 some years never come across with that.l have mixed children all are fine