Autisms Origins?

A provocative article was published in the January/February Stanford Magazine called "Breaking Through". The article zeroes in on research being done to answer the fundamental question: what is the underlying biology of autism? (http://www.stanfordalumni.org/news/magazine/2011/janfeb/features/autism.html) Rather than focusing on the rapid increase in the numbers, blaming vaccines, genetics, or even the environment, these researchers believe that only by understanding the biology of this perplexing disorder, will we ever have breakthroughs.

It has only been in the last few years that we have heard autism being referred to not as one disorder, but instead, a host of distinct disorders with the catchall name of autism. People talk about 'autisms' rather than the singular autism alone. With the idea of teasing out the many possible differences in the basic biology causing the symptoms, it would logically follow that treatments for each distinctive manifestation would not be the same. And the idea that you could possibly reverse the symptoms of such a profound disorder is extremely exciting. Note in the article the research being done on mice with fragile-X. It seems that the drugs they are experimenting with are actually reversing some neurological symptoms. This is very promising, though likely a long way off. But when the only current effective intervention is educational, this gives us all hope that someday this will not be seen as a lifetime disorder.