http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/23/health/fathers-age-is-linked-to-risk-of-autism-and-schizophrenia.html
I recently found this article that discusses the possibility that older men are more likely to father children with autism and schizophrenia when compared to younger men. Experts believe this is due to random mutations that occur more frequently with advancing paternal age. This counters the previously held belief that the mother's age held a significant role in determining if a child develops autism or schizophrenia. The risk of abnormalities in the chromosomes is often seen in the older women, however, when it comes down to psychiatric problems and mind development, the majority of risk comes from sperm, and not the egg. Researchers have found that on average, a child born to a man around the age of twenty had the risk factor for twenty-five different gene mutations that could be traced back to paternal genetics. An average of two new mutations each year is added to the total number of possible mutations for the male, with a total number of sixty-five possible gene mutations occurring if a child is born from a forty year old man. Scientists say this is the first solid piece of evidence that could possibly account towards the increasing cases of autism and schizophrenia.
What is everyone's opinion on this newly found topic? The article does state that this is just a risk factor and does not mean that men having children at an older age will definitely result in a child having autism or schizophrenia. Researchers have stated that this may only account for 20-30% of factors that have an influential role in autism and schizophrenia and there is still a lot of unknown details about these disorders in general.
Anh-Tuan Tran
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteConstantly new ideas and theories are being introduced to what causes autism, but still the factors are unknown. This is an interesting approach, but I don't agree with it. Many fathers who are young have children with autism also, and many older fathers have had children that never developed autism. Also the article says for males to freeze their sperm. I feel that is unnecessary in this situation, when they don't know if father's age is really a deciding factor on whether or not the child develops autism. I feel there are other biological factors more likely to be contributing to the development of autism in children. I would like to see further studies conducted to show that father's age was a possible link with development of autism in children. Hopefully , in the future researchers will be able to determine the causes.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the view points expressed in the previous two comments. There are so many biological factors that are related to autism and the fact that scientists are still having trouble recognizing exactly how autism works, reaffirms my view. Personally, after reading this article I am in agreements with the last paragraph that expresses that having a parent who is older is only a small part of the puzzle in finding out how autism really presents itself in mutations and other variables. I think that scientist should continue to study autism and what factors lead to autism in children. I would be interested to see what percentage of parents above the age of the 40 have autistic children vs the percentage of parents who are below 40.
ReplyDeleteI agree with those who have posted. While it stands to reason that the older the sperm (or for that matter the egg) are, the greater the risk for disorders. I do not, however, feel that the statistics reported are truly significant in the big picture. There is a strong drive to find the cause and cure for autism. As a result, I think groups are using statistics to prove something that cannot be proven by one specific risk factor. While Martijn mentioned it would be interesting to know the percentages of children with autism based on parent age, I think first a better measure for even diagnosing autism would need to be made. There is plenty of research that supports the rise in autism has directly correlated with the decrease in diagnosis of other disorders such as mental retardation (or Intellectually Deficient). Basically, are we shifting the "labels" or is there truly this huge leap in autism?
DeleteThe topic of autism hits close to home for me. About five years ago my younger brother was diagnosed with Asperger's. Ever since I have found myself paying close attention to autism research. It seems that every day there are new studies and theories behind possible causation of autism. Most studies seem to investigate biological factors that are not able to be changed. However, this study seems to suggest that there may be ways to avoid having a child who may have autism. This raises an important ethical issue. Is it ethical to freeze sperm in order to prevent your child from having autism? I guess it depends on who you ask. My personal opinion is that freezing your sperm is like selective breeding in order to dodge something that others may call "fate." If you ask many individuals who have mild autism they would argue with you that it is not a handicap but rather a gift or talent. Some of biggest scientific findings have been from autistic individuals. So the question here is........ Even IF the risk of having an autistic child increases with an older father, should preventative steps be taken and is it ethical?
ReplyDelete