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You and YoursÌý- Transcript 91Èȱ¬ Radio 4 |
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TX: 13.10.04 - Autism research Ìý PRESENTER: JOHN WAITE |
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THE ATTACHED TRANSCRIPT WAS TYPED FROM A RECORDING AND NOT COPIED FROM AN ORIGINAL SCRIPT.Ìý BECAUSE OF THE RISK OF MISHEARING AND THE DIFFICULTY IN SOME CASES OF IDENTIFYING INDIVIDUAL SPEAKERS, THE 91Èȱ¬ CANNOT VOUCH FOR ITS COMPLETE ACCURACY. WAITE And now as part of our ongoing series a few facts about autism. Ìý AUTISM FACTS Autism is a lifelong disability that affects the way a person communicates and relates to other people. Despite wide ranging differences everyone with autism has problems with social interaction and with imagination. Ìý Autism affects at least half a million people in the UK. Boys are four times more likely than girls to have autism. Ìý No one knows the cause of autism and it's unclear whether there is an external trigger such as diet, an infection or exposure to toxins in the home. There is though strong evidence to suggest there are genetic factors involved. Ìý There's no known cure for autistic spectrum disorders, there are dozens of so-called interventions, though there is very little objective scientific research to assess their effectiveness. Ìý As you heard there the cause of autism remains unknown but given that identical twins, as we heard yesterday on the programme, don't always both develop the condition other factors besides genetics are probably involved. The Medical Research Council has recently put up £1½ million to fund four studies into the so-called environmental factors which may trigger autism. At Bristol University, for example, experts are examining data already collected from an ongoing study called Children of the 90s. This has been following 14,000 children from birth and recording every detail of their lives. Carolyn Atkinson's been speaking to people involved in the project and to Professor Jean Golding who leads it. Ìý GOLDING The original idea for Children of the 90s was to look at the way in which anything in the environment might have influenced the development and health of children. So there are a huge range of things that we can look at and will look at. We've got the information collected as we went along from the mothers during pregnancy and the early years of the child's life, so we don't have the bias that many studies have when a child is diagnosed with autism of trying to get the mother to think back to what was happening. Ìý ACTUALITY Michael can you say train? Ìý Train. Ìý DAY I'm Val Day, I've got two sons - Christopher and Michael - and Michael is severely autistic with learning difficulties. When I was expecting Christopher I went along to the doctor for one of my regular checks and she actually asked me if I'd like to take part in a study in Bristol. So I said yes. And from then on during my pregnancy and after myself and Christopher filled out questionnaires, we've been to focus sessions in which the study children actually take part in various different exercises, including things like eye tests, hearing tests, blood pressure, blood tests, allergy testing - various different things that goes right across the spectrum. And we've continued to do that for the past 12 years. Ìý GOLDING We know that for many cases there is a genetic link but that doesn't explain all the things that we know about autistic behaviour that are happening at the moment. There is, we think, an increase in prevalence over time, which can't be explained by the genes, there are features like the fact that it seems to be the more upper social classes that have children that are more prone to the disorder, which can't really be explained by genetics. There are all sorts of other features that suggest that the environment is important. For example when children were exposed to rubella in pregnancy, not only were they more likely to be deaf and blind, they were more likely to be autistic and that was the infection that did that. The children who were born after the mothers took thalidomide were more likely to be autistic and that was related to a particular time of pregnancy, it wasn't related to the mother's predisposition to take a drug. Ìý ACTUALITY Michael, what's for tea time tonight? Potato and cheese. Tell mummy again. Ìý Potato and cheese. Ìý What do want for tea time? Ìý Tea time. Ìý GOLDING If it's true that autism is increasing in prevalence then it's got to be something that's changed quite radically in the last 20, 30 years. Now our diets have changed radically, so that's one possibility. There are many others but that I think I would imagine might be the most positive to look at. Ìý ACTUALITY What do you want? Do you want pasta or potato and cheese? Ìý GOLDING We collected fortunately both during the mother's pregnancy and during the child's life a lot of very detailed information on just what the child was eating or drinking, when a particular food started to be given and we will piece all that together. Ìý ACTUALITY No alright, alright don't put your hands in your mouth. Ìý ATKINSON Very recently you revealed information about mercury and its role or not within autism. Ìý GOLDING What we've looked at is the triple vaccine - diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough. The children get three doses within the first six months and that vaccine, until very recently, contained thiomersal which has mercury within it. So there was the question that if you're dosing the child with even very small doses of mercury early in life could that be doing brain damage? So we looked at the Children of the 90s information and could find no evidence at all of any brain damage, whether in the sort of traits that are linked to autism or any other developmental trait. Ìý DAY During this time of year Michael loves to play in the sand and the water and it seems to be his favourite game, getting dirty and just playing with the water. Ìý GOLDING A portion of our work will certainly be looking further at immunisations that the children were given, there's a lot of talk about MMR and we will look at that as well. Ìý DAY Hopefully by this study the work Christopher and myself have been doing will help to find a cure for autism. Ìý GOLDING We're able to look at far more than any other study ever has been able to do. It may well be much more complicated than one gene and one environment but we have so much information that I would hope that Children of the 90s will be able to solve some of the puzzles about autism. Ìý WAITE Professor Jean Golding ending that report from Carolyn Atkinson. And tomorrow we look at some of the treatments or more correctly interventions, as they're called, that are available for autism. Back to the You and Yours homepage The 91Èȱ¬ is not responsible for external websites |
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