Origins of Autism and related (genetic?)

Looking at my own family history on both sides of my family, I’ve often wondered what the real causes of Autism and related conditions are, being a history buff and realising that Queen Victoria was reputed to be a carrier (possibly from George III) of certain conditions going further back and later on, affecting the Russian Czars - I know that my parents had huge childhood traumas before they met and married in thier respective childhoods, rendering them unsuitable for Marraige, relationships, friendships and bringing children into the world, which was why they were not allowed to have any more children after I was born and where their own marriage was strongly disapproved of - I know that my grandparents respective  marraiges were disapproved of by my grandmothers’ respective families for a variety of reasons at that time, which this disapproval of marriage caused friction and discord within my grandparents own marraiges when both of my parents were children and which caused my parents as children to become traumatised from this marital disharmony, aside from any other influences - I’ve often wondered if the cause of Autism and related conditions is genetic? 

Parents
  • It’s down to genetics. Studies are ongoing as far as I’m aware. We do know that it seems to come down the paternal line.

    In the past I wondered if medication taken by either parent at or before conception might have been a factor.

  • There's a theory that females show less autistic traits for a given 'load' of autism-related genetic variants. This means that an outwardly neurotypical mother could pass on as many autistic genetic variants to a child as a fully diagnosed autistic father. It would then seem that the autism was patrilinear, whereas in fact both parents contributed to the autism of their offspring. 

  • Certainly females could at least be carriers of the genes perhaps more so than males, as we saw with Queen Victoria and King George III - this is why I would have a huge problem with genetic editing as a devout Catholic and would uphold traditional Catholic Teachings on these issues - because of this, I’m also very cautious about certain scientific and technological advances in recent years 

Reply
  • Certainly females could at least be carriers of the genes perhaps more so than males, as we saw with Queen Victoria and King George III - this is why I would have a huge problem with genetic editing as a devout Catholic and would uphold traditional Catholic Teachings on these issues - because of this, I’m also very cautious about certain scientific and technological advances in recent years 

Children
No Data