Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is an overall term which is used when referring to some specific group of diseases. These disorders are inclusive of the autism, pervasive developmental disorder and the Asperger's syndrome. The ASDs have unique characteristics of restrictiveness, repetition, reduced communication, impaired socialization and the stereotyped activities. The characteristics of the ASD are presents at the childhood to adulthood and have an adverse impact on the daily functioning of such an individual. All these components must be present for the diagnosis of ASD to be perfect (Allen & Yudkoff, 2013). For instance, a person who has difficulties in communication, but does not show any signs of the autism should undergo further checkup for communication disorders. ASD symptoms manifest early mostly before the child reach three years. Such children are often facing abnormalities mainly in cognitive functions, sensory processing, learning and attention. The ASDs are usually tied to disabling symptoms and comorbidities such as aggression, and maybe some self-injurious characters. These behaviors require psycho-pharmacologic interventions as the mainstay of treatments. There is a well-defined prevalence increment on the male children and adults with the male to female affected individual ration standing at 4:1. Following down the lines of history, ASDs were considered to be a rare condition. However, this has changed substantially as the years roll on. The prevalence of this disease is increasing by the day. The incidence in the U.S is currently estimated to stand at 1%. Moreover, ASDs has heredity chance of about 90%; this is contributing significantly to its rate of prevalence in the population. The fact is that though the heritability of this condition is very high, the genetic causes remain elusive; this is because it’s complicated multigenetic aetiology and the behavioural phenotypes. The focus of this project, therefore, entails exploring the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and all these aspects.
Definition : The ASD affect different parts of human body. The ASD has a considerable effect on the neurological function of the diagnosed person. It changes the nervous system where it causes different kind of abnormalities that are related to cognitive developments, spinal cord, brain disorders and many other types of the diseases linked to brain and central nervous system as asserted by (Allen and Yudkoff, 2013). Psychologically, this disorder has a significant impact on the diagnosed patients' brain. Such patients often are affected psychology and may face different stereotypes which may worsen off their condition. Such patients cannot often interact with each other and learn more about the social world. These symptoms manifest differently in every child. Furthermore, they depend on the severity of the condition. ASD can also be defined regarding the Neuropsychological aspect (Arnold, 2017). ASD has a substantial effect on the diagnosed person's cognitive developments especially children. It affects specific cognitive domains in the human body such as the concentration domains, attention, verbal and visual memories. This makes the diagnosed person cannot learn, reading social awareness and many others. It is due to the Neuropsychological that such patients often have memory issues, impaired communication, problems while processing information and much more.
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Diagnosis Criteria : There are specific components of the ASD which has been presented for the full diagnosis. First, there must be a history or the patient must show a current struggle with consistent and persistent social interaction deficit. These have to be indicated by all of the following; first, failure to create or maintain back and forth talking, emotions, lack of ability to share a personal interest and much more (Ford, 2015). Second is the nonverbal communication issues, and the last one is the problem in relationship developments, maintains and much more. The second criteria are the history or evidence of the patient's current struggle with the repetitive or restricted, behavior, activities or behavior in at least two of the following; first, motor movements repletion, the need to follow a specific routine, ritualized nonverbal and verbal behaviors, and much more. Focusing on abnormal interest and the Hypo or the hyperactivity is also categorized under this criterion. The third rules are either the current symptoms or the history of the which were presents at the early age of developments, and the last one is the symptoms cause impairments in social, occupational and much more.
Reasons for choosing the topic: I present three good reasons why I have chosen ASD as my topic of study. First is the personal experience, I have personally had an opportunity to interact with patient who was diagnosed with the ASD. I have to confess that the scene was not that appealing and it was at this point that I developed more interest to have more knowledge on the aspects of this disease. The next reason is due to the professional experience. Based on the lines of history, ASD was less prevalent many years ago; this, however, has changed substantially since the prevalence rate is currently. This means that various professions are presently more concerned with control, prevention, diagnosis, treatments and management of the ASD. There are other reasons why I preferred this topic too. I chose this disease to have my knowledge and understanding of this disease improved (Ingenta, 2017). The fact is that with increased stressors in the ecosystem, their prevalence of the neuropsychological disorders is very rampant. With the increase in this disorder, there is a need for the knowledge on the some of this disease such as the ASD. In this manner, I can extend mat help to any individual affected any this disorder.
Epidemiology: ASD mostly affects children; it affects children mainly at the young age of three years and bellow. The ASD is non-selective kind of condition which affects genders of all sorts. However, it has been noted that male children are more affected than female children at their young age. The children are both affected by this disorder especially despite where they reside. However, it also has been noted that rural children are more affected due to the style of upbringing. Lastly, the racial or ethnic background is not modified or determinant of the ASD. It changes all the races and ethnicities.
Discussion
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) Description
Signs and symptoms : ASD has unique and specific signs and symptoms. The signs and symptoms manifest at the age of three years and below. There are many unique characteristics; however, there are two specific signs and symptoms which have to prevail for this condition to be diagnosed. The first is Restrictive or Repetitive behavior. In this case, the diagnosed patients will show the following signs. They will repeat specific acts or will persistently have unique characters or actions. Secondly, the diagnosed patients will often have over-concentration behaviors specifically on moving objects. Lastly, such individuals will always develop a lasting interest in specific topics (Amaral, 2017).These can be numbers, facts and much more. The second sign and symptom is the social communication, or what is sometimes termed as the interaction behaviors. The patients show different signs under this category. These are inclusive of getting upset suddenly for instance, by the slight change in routine. The patients always have less eye contact. They also develop a tendency of looking less at people. Having issues with understanding other people's point of view, having some facial expression and movements which does not depict what they talk, sometimes, they use odd words and lastly, they tend to repeat phrases and have hearing problems.
Epidemiology: The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) presents data that and statistics which prevalence and demographic targets of the ASD. According to this information, 1 in 68 children has been revealed to be affected by the ASD. This, therefore, means that the prevalence is about 1%. This is an increment based on the history of this disease. Alternatively, CDC data indicated that the disease affects all the ethnic groups in the populace. The racial, ethnic and socioeconomic differences in the population according to the information from the CDC do not have any influence on this condition. The data also reveals that male gender is more affected than female. The male is affected five times as compared to the female sex. The prevalence of this condition has been on the increasing trend. The data presentation is a clear indication that this disorder is currently competing with other developments diseases which are highly prevalent in the population such as the mental retardation. The epidemiological data has shown that this condition has a genetic history with its hereditary index standing at 90%. However, the putative Genes risk has never been discovered in ASD.
The ASD has different subtypes which vary depending on the severity. There are those subtypes of the ASD which are incredibly severe while others are mild. There is the Pervasive developmental disorder this is a mild form of the ASD. There is the autistic disorder in this case; the symptoms of the ASD are always milder but stronger than at the of the pervasive developments disorder. Another subtype of the ASD is the disintegrated childhood disorder. According to the history of the ASD, this is one of the rarest and severe subtypes of the ASD. In this case, the children have the healthy developments, however, as they grow; they lose the interaction ingredients and the human languages (Damiano et al., 2014).Such children usually suffer their metal skills; they also develop seizure disorder especially when they are approaching four years. The next subtype of the ASD is the Rett syndrome. The Rett syndrome though has been questioned whether or not it should be classified as the ASD subgroup. Patients diagnosed with the Rett Syndrome often exhibit a similar behavior to that of the autism patients. However, some scientist has revealed that the genetic mutation causes the Rett syndrome. In this case, it is no longer considered an ASD. It has not been ruled out entirely.
Natural history of the ASD
The word autism has very common in the current healthcare system; however, it has its specific history which stretches back in the years the 1900s. This disease was thought to be schizophrenia and is still confused and misdiagnosed till today. At this time, the disease did not have any specific treatments method or medication since it was being misdiagnosed. In the year the 1950s, the first type of this condition was discovered and named Asperger's syndrome, which was the name of the person who found the disease. This discovery led to an intense search for the cause of the ASD, and it was at this point that a psychologist came across refrigerators mothers. "These poor women were accused of having caused their child's autism by withholding affection (being "cold") at a critical point in their child's life. Though eventually disproved, this theory was in effect for decades; my mother was accused of it even though my sister was born in the 90s". During all this time, the drug had no drug, and it developed rapidly. It was until the late seventies that aversion therapy was discovered for the treatments for the condition.
The developments of this condition without treatments ended when it was proved that aversion was helpful for the state. However, the disease continued and developed even with the growing concerns and the developments of another kind of treatments methods. In the years the 1980s, "Autism is given its category for diagnosis in the DSM (the "Bible" of psychology); now finally separate from that of schizophrenia”. The diseases continue to be monitored it developed rapidly as treatments methods were being hatched out. This later grew until the main cure was discovered. ASD proliferates when there is no medication. This is the sole reason why this disease spread rapidly. In the years 1998, it was alleged that Vaccines were causing the ASD. The "vaccines began to be blamed for causing autism, leading to many parent's refusals to vaccinate their children and the rise of chelation therapy as a proposed therapy or cure for children with autism". The sole reason for this is that ASD spread very fast because it was being misdiagnosed. Under medication, the developments of this condition are hindered.
Diagnosis; The diagnosis of ASD take two steps, "the first stage involves developmental screening during "well child" check-ups; the second stage entails a comprehensive evaluation by a multidisciplinary team". The parents at this stage may notice that their children have unique behavior, for instance, unresponsive behaviors to toy, strange reactions and many others. Alternatively, a healthy child may also start showing this change before hitting the three years mark. This signs should be reported after which diagnosis process should be commenced. Several screening needed is needed at this stage. The screening process involves gathering information child behavior mostly social behaviors. Among them are the “Checklist of Autism in Toddlers (CHAT), the modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers (M-CHAT), the Screening Tool for Autism in Two-Year-Olds (STAT), and the Social Communication Questionnaire (SCQ; for children four years of age and older). Some screening instruments rely solely on parent responses to a questionnaire, and some rely on a combination of parent reports and observation”. It should be noted that during the diagnosis, the doctor may also screen and analyze another disease that related to the ASD such as the Rett disorder. Other can be the Asperger's which also have similar signs as the ASD but have the language and intelligence contacts. In this case, the Austin Spectrum Screening Questionnaire can be used by the doctors. The last stage involves comprehensive evaluation by some clinicians before concluding. It should be noted that the diagnosis should only agree upon the profession in case all the criteria of the ASD are met. For instance, all the conditions, signs and symptoms such as the repetitiveness and the communication issue plus many others should match with the result of the screening and evaluation.
Risk factors : Environmental, genetically and the Lifestyle are some of the risk factors of ASD. These are discussed as follows; if one identical twin has ASD, the twin will also be at the risk of being affected by ASD. The percentage shows that such particular twin has 36% to 95% chances of being harmed. However, on the other hand, non-identical twins, have almost 31% chances of being affected in case the other one has the ASD. Alternatively, the parents who have a first child affected by ASD, there is a chance of the 2-8% that their next child may be affected by the ASD. "ASD tends to occur more often in people who have certain genetic or chromosomal conditions. About 10% of children with autism are also identified as having Down syndrome , fragile X syndrome , tuberous sclerosis , or other genetic and chromosomal disorders” (Williams et al., 2015). Alternatively, the children born of old parents are also understood to be at the risk of getting this disease. Alternatively, a small percentage of the children born prematurely and those born with low birth weight are at great risk of getting ASD. “ASD commonly co-occurs with other developmental, psychiatric, neurologic, chromosomal, and genetic diagnoses. The co-occurrence of one or more non-ASD developmental diagnoses is 83%. The co-occurrence of one or more psychiatric diagnoses is 10%”.
The structure involved: ASD affect the nervous system and the Neurotransmitters. “ The autism spectrum disorder involves various pathways and structures of the nervous system, which form the basis of underlying pathology affected. These include the brain and the nervous system in the body” The neural cells migrations are often affected by the ASD. “Further, it affects synaptogenesis, differentiation and eventually the brain developmental. Some of the common neurotransmitters include GABAergic, serotonergic and glutamatergic systems”.
Treatments: The ASD has no single therapies which have been cited to be the best. Treatments plans are usually put in place to ensure that the patients are matched with treatments based on their strength. Children need early therapy on ASD. Early intervention "focuses on teaching social skills, developing motor and communication skills, reducing problem behaviors (e.g., emotional outbursts, head-banging, interrupting) and promoting positive behaviors (e.g., turn-taking in social situations)" Medication can be used; however, behavior therapy is more useful than medication. However, the drug reduces irritability, aggression, anxiety and depression, attention problem and much more (Nadra & Laila, 2015). The interventions are critical and have been proven to be very essential for the patients diagnosed with ASD. Home care is vital, especially where the patients are at the stage of recovery, however, upon diagnosis of the patients, healthcare setting is the best to help in monitoring the patients and intervening whenever possible.
Future research area: The ASD has no specific pharmacological intervention. This is one area which should be explored, and more research should be done to ensure that treatments are available. Furthermore, there is still a need for more specific diagnosis and evaluation method. Future studies could explore more and get appropriate evaluation and diagnosis for the ASD. Lastly, more knowledge is needed in the aetiology, and pathology of the ASD. This could be a chance for knowledge increments and additional information for proper intervention for this disease.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the aspects of the ASD are worth exploring and understanding deeply to create awareness for this rare but increasing prevailing condition. This is very important since it will help in managing this condition. It is also evident that with a better understanding of the aspect of this disease, for instance, its diagnosis, history, treatments, symptoms and signs and much more as discussed in this research paper, it will enhance further research on the topic and more knowledge on ASD and better intervention to reduce its effects.
References
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Nadra, E., & Laila, Y. A. (2015). Genetic Markers Association in Autism Spectrum Disorder. Journal of Clinical & Medical Genomics, 3 (13) Retrieved from https://doi:10.4172/2472-128X.1000132
Williams, J. G., Higgins, J. P. T., & Brayne, C. E. G. (2015). A systematic review of prevalence studies of autism spectrum disorders. Archives of Disease in Childhood , 91 (1), 8–15. http://doi.org/10.1136/adc.2004.062083
