Is AS Hereditary?

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Hi there, I'm new to this forum and have an important question.

I've been diagnosed with a mild case of AS, and am wondering two things; firstly, where did I get it? Neither of my parents has the disorder, nor does anyone else in my family. And secondly, if I have children, will they have it?

Is it like, a recessive gene thing, or am I a random natural mutation, or what? Any ideas or information are welcome!

Edit: I also had a difficult birth, and possible minor brain oxygen starvation [my face was bright purple when they finally got me out!] if that matters.

It could be either genes from your parents, or a new genetic mutation, or both. Either way, yes, AS is genetic, and you can pass it on to your children. However, you're not guaranteed to pass it on. My parents are both autistic; I'm autistic, my full sister is not, and my half-sister has very strong autistic traits (but hasn't been diagnosed because my mom is in denial). So in my case, two autistic people had a non-autistic child, just like in your case two non-autistic parents had an autistic child... It is not, by any means, the sort of simple Mendelian inheritance you learn about in school on blue eyes and brown eyes. We know AS involves multiple genes, and that multiple arrangements can cause AS. We don't know specifics.

Unfortunately, nobody has yet quantified the chance that an autistic person will have an autistic child; with good reason, because autism in its current definition has been around only just barely long enough for people diagnosed as children to marry and have children (children diagnosed at age 3 in 1994 are now only nineteen years old).

The chances of parents having another autistic child if they have already had one hover somewhere around the one-in-twenty mark. This, of course, is average; depending on their particular genetic configuration, some couples may have more like a one-in-two chance, and others, barely more than the general population.

Wow, one in twenty? Where did you get that number?

Do you know where I can find any like, online research papers or something which can give me any idea of the chances of passing on my own AS to any children I have?

Also, thanks for replying!

I think it's genetic. My dad has traits, my brother, my grandma might have it according to my parents. My uncle could have it and my grand uncle might have too. Traits run in my family. My mom hardly has any but she won't admit it.

I had ear infections and had hearing loss and my mom thinks it might have effected the wiring of my brain and now I am on the spectrum. I read ear infections are common in kids on the spectrum. I also had fevers too and I stopped developing normally around nine months. That was when I was sick all the time.

YES Genetics all the way!! No question of a doubt in my mind.

And 1:20? Nah I think it is 1:5 and that is conservative! Just my opinion!

You don't need academic papers although there are VERY many around that all point to genetics. Just look around you, we are everywhere!

Like I said JUST MY OPINION

Asperger syndrome is 90% genetic.
It is either one of the or the most hereditary neurological disorders.
Psychopathy (or anti-social personality disorder) is also very genetic.
Although there is an easy way to determine how it was acquired.
Those who were also callous got it genetically, those who were not also callous got it from their environment.
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autism and http://en.wikipedia,org/Psychopath

Do you think is possible for AS / autism to be genetic by 'mutation' of other psychiatric disorders???

I ask this because my dad has some form of psycopathy / ASBD & my mum, well God knows, probably bi polar, shes a maniac thats for sure. But there is no other adverse mental health history on either side and I'm fairly sure nothing in the autistic spectrum....so could these disorders be the cause of my AS..?

Yes it is genetic, it usually get passed down the family but sometimes your genes could just arange themselves that way on their own to create a new mutation that will get passed down your generations.
It isn't certain that someone with AS will definitly have an autistic child but it's a lot more common for an AS parent to have an autistic child than an NT parent.

I think that it is hereditary at the molecular genetic level. My mum has some autistic traits, but is an NT, and there has been a couple of people who have had autism whether AS or Kanners, on my mum's side of the family. I also think that my nan, (my mum's mum) may have had AS as well. My aunts' and uncles' on my mum's side of the family are NTs but are not especially outgoing my mum isn't anyway. .

I don't think the verdict on it being entirely hereditary is in yet. There seems to be a strong genetic component. I have seen various papers (check PubMed) that support their being genetics, genetics & environment, etc....

It's possible you have ancestors who were on the spectrum, but who were functional enough that it didn't "show". I suspect that people were a bit more tolerant of eccentricity in the past, so what was acceptable may have included AS traits that were not detrimental. If you had an ancestor who was AS who was female, she may have been so heavily socialized at a young age that she could "pass" for NT. Or if you had a workaholic male ancestor, perhaps spectrum there? OR, you could be the first. OR you might not specifically be AS, but share many traits with AS caused by some other issue (your difficult birth, for example).

In my family, I've got an Aspie daughter, I'm Aspie to a greater extent than she is, I have a brother on the spectrum and a sister who is not, my father and several of his brothers and at least one sister were on the spectrum (with possibly two brothers full Autistic), his mother was pretty obviously on the spectrum somewhere as evidenced by her behavior over the decades, and HER mother was reputed to be "a touch odd". Since my daughter was almost half the way through school when Aspergers became an "official" diagnosable entity, I have to wonder. Many of my father's siblings were highly successful - they had a very narrow focus and were able to find careers where that was an asset. So, the successful ones did well, married, and had kids. It appears, from what I can tell from my genealogy research, as if even in the lines that had spectrum ancestors, the farther down the generations one goes the more "dilute" the degree of impact. Every now and then there is still a full-blown Autistic, but even those seem to be relatively high functioning. Then again, I'm only working with seven generations' records. And most of it is word-of-mouth, nothing scientifically studied.

So, I would default back to the original - that it's not proved yet, but that there appears to be a strong genetic component to many cases. That does not rule out spontaneous mutations or syndromes that seem similar but that have other causes. PubMed is a really good resource, I'd recommend it for serious reading.

Good luck!

That makes me want to have kids, now. We need more autism, in the world.

If the jury is still out then they are fiddling their expenses - in my mind there is no question that the range of conditions is anything other than genetically determined and that there are a number of chromosomes responsible (or a number of points on a single chromosome).

It's clear from reading around just this forum that there is a very wide range of symptoms, expressions, traits etc, etc which is a clear indication that there are several genetic locations which are responsible and the mixture of these "mutations" may be carried forward into an expression of ASC. Depending on the gene(s) involved there will be characteristics that are passed on by each individual parent but may or may not be expressed in the offspring; remember half from one parent, half from another: it's only when both parents give a "mutant" gene that it is expressed. If we look at the vast range of the variation from NT (whatever that is), there must be a large range of factors which either are direct mutations of a gene or complex combinations of genes and the controlling biochemistry of those genes.

This last point (biochemical control of gene expression) may give rise to environmental factors which could, in theory at least, affect the expression (or non-expression) of a gene because of something the foetus, neonate or child came into contact with. There is, to me at least, a very low probability of this being the root cause simply because we would see a direct cause and effect relationship and there would not be such a variation in the conditions.

Currently my own (pet) theory is that there are quite a number of mutations which, when present in certain mixes, give rise to range of conditions; but the controlling feature of this is one or more mutations on the X chromosome. Hence mothers carry the "capability" and would tend to have males expressing the conditions more frequently.

I know alot of people on the spectrum that have had difficult or traumatic births and it seems like an awful huge coincidence to me if it's not a factor.
On the other hand, I totally agree that genetics plays a big part in it as well. Especially Asperger's. I am Asperger's and my son is as well. I've always told people he is the same brand of weird that I am.

No its caused by the MMR vaccine.