April is Autism Awareness Month

This month you will see a lot of media attention given to Autism Awareness Month. It is a campaign to bring more awareness to this disorder that affects many children and their families. And, with this awareness often comes more questions such as: What causes Autism? Who is most susceptible? Is there a cure? Are we closer to a cure? Can we prevent autism?

Unfortunately, like many other medical conditions, there are not many answers. Even more so, there are disagreements within the medical community and the autism community as to outside factors that may cause autism – most notably vaccinations.

According to www.autismspeaks.org it is estimated that one out of every 110 children are diagnosed with some form of autism. When it comes to boys, 1-in70 are estimated to have autism. This is amazinglycommon within society – more proliferative than many other diseases such as diabetes or cancer.

So, why does autism diagnoses seem to be on the rise? Where was it 10, 15 and 20 years ago? The most logical response is that it has always been here. However, not until the last decade or so have we been able to diagnose it accurately. Generally, when a dramatic increase in diagnosed cases arise in a disorder, it is not due to a sudden epidemic, but more so because the criteria for diagnosing the condition has improved. Such is the case with autism.

The other question is what, if any, role does envinronment factors play in autism? Today, we are always looking for the impact of environmental factors on disorders and disases that we do not understand. In cancer, we know smoking is an environmental factor. We undertand the role of lead, asbestos and other pollutants on certain diseases. However, there does not seem to be a consensus on what factors cause autism.

With continued funding for research, hopefully some of these questions can be answered. In the meantime, the children and families affected by autism continue to find ways to improve their lives. For the rest of us who are not affected by autism, it is important to understand how our friends, family members and loved ones are affected by this disorder.

For more information, check out www.autismspeaks.org or www.autism-society.org.