Researchers Identify Four Autism Subtypes with Distinct Genes and Traits

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Autism has at least four subtypes, an analysis of more than 5,000 children’s genes, traits and developmental trajectories has shown

Stephen Shore, an autistic professor of special education at Adelphi University, has said: “If you’ve met one person with autism, you’ve met one person with autism.” This quote is popular in the autism community and among researchers because it reflects something they grapple with all the time: the truly incredible diversity of experiences that fall under the diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

“The beauty of the autism spectrum is: it speaks to this heterogeneity. And the downside [is that] it covers up the differences,” says Fred Volkmar, a psychiatrist and a professor emeritus at Yale University. Right now individuals are placed on the spectrum based on the level of severity, from level 1 to level 3, of two different criteria: social communication difficulties and restricted, repetitive behaviors. Those coarse groupings, however, miss so much of the nuance. That’s why researchers have spent decades trying to use genetics and behavioral characteristics to divide the spectrum into meaningful subtypes. The hope is that such subtypes can help guide care for autistic people and their families and reveal what causes different presentations of autism in the first place.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/four-new-autism-subtypes-link-genes-to-childrens-traits/

[Steffan]

Really glad more studies are being done for autism. My wife's nephew has autism. I forget the spectrum he has. Hopefully studies like these will help improve the life of him and others.