Idiopathic ASD vs secondary ASD ?

Post Reply New Topic

I wonder how many here have the latter. Will the number who have the latter increase as research provides more information?

https://www.genome.gov/Genetic-Disorders/Autism

I have the "idiopathic" variety. My family, otherwise, are a bunch of NT's.

My father came over to England last year to see me. We went out for lunch. My stepdaughter and grandchildren were there too. I am not aware of any autism in my family history . However based on that brief interaction , and other brief interactions with my father , my stepdaughter said at my assessment that he had quite a few similar traits to myself .

Of course they may not have been autism related traits . My father has never had a great problem interacting with people.His job working at the Foreign office,and especially as a diplomat abroad, necessitated him having good social communication skills.

Its an odd concept. Dividing it that way- secondary and idiopathic.

Those who have it from known causes, and those who have from unknown causes.

Having a condition "secondarily" implies that it was "late onset", and that you got it from some assault on you by the environment- as opposed to being born with it because your genes dictated it.

Never heard of NT child suddenly "becoming autistic" at a point years after the child was born. I suppose that something like that could happen. A normal kid suddenlty changes in personality after getting (for example) lead paint poisoning ( or something chemical like that), and develops symptoms outwardly similar to autism.

Hmm, I'm of the opinion there are actually many different types of autism, and we just don't understand it well enough to distinguish what are probably etiologically distinct types. So I'm not sure there is really a "idiopathic" vs. "secondary" type, as it is so much that idiopathic is caused by genetic factors we don't yet understand.