UK Autism Study Launched

Study of 14,000 children attempts to nail down causes and definition of autism
By Philip Hunter

British researchers have launched a major study into the effect of genetics and environment on autism, hoping to resolve controversies over the causes and definition of autism spectrum disorders.

The Medical Research Council (MRC) has given a team from Bristol University £400,000 to study autism using data from the Children of the 90s study, a long-term project assessing the impact of environment and genes on the developing health of 14,000 children.

Lead researcher Jean Golding said the study should resolve once and for all the controversy over the alleged link between the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism that has rumbled on ever since Andrew Wakefield's famous Lancet paper and subsequent press conference in 1998.

In fact, the project is one of four into autism supported by the MRC from funds that were allocated to take forward recommendations of the 2001 MRC Review on Autism, which was partly a response to concerns raised by Wakefield.

The other three projects include a collaborative brain imaging study, led by Declan Murphy at the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, and studies led by Kate Nation, at the University of Oxford, and Tony Charman, at the Institute of Child Health, to understand more about how cognition relates to behavior in people with autism spectrum disorders.

The Bristol study was welcomed with some caveats by Paul Shattock from the UK Autism Research Unit in Sunderland. "There's a whole range of possible environmental triggers, and given the size of this study, they should be able to tease out which ones are significant," Shattock said. "So I'm pleased they're moving away from a totally genetic grounding to consider environmental factors."

Shattock urged the study's researchers to keep an open mind over the alleged MMR link, but said he was not convinced that even a study this size will finally resolve the MMR question. Given that the incidence of autism is about 1 in 140, and that of these children, around 7 to 11% have parents believing there is such a link, there might be no more than 10 of them within the 14,000 sample, Shattock said.

Golding insisted the team will assess the possible MMR link with an open mind. "But I'd be surprised if it turns out there is a link," she said.

Golding said she hoped the study would help define autism and Asperger syndrome. "What this research is doing, that previous work hasn't, is try and untangle the different traits."

The study is also focusing on the possible links between autism and gut bacteria passed from mother to child during pregnancy, although only via indirect data on the state of the mother's bowel movements, according to Golding. But one question the study will not be able to answer is whether the incidence of autism has been increasing over the last 30 years, as is commonly believed, or whether improved diagnosis is the reason for greater patient numbers. "I don't think we'll be able to answer that because our study is a snapshot in time," said Golding.

The study was called a positive step forward by the UK National Autistic Society. "However, until the outcomes of these new research studies are seen, the significance of their contribution to understanding the development of autism will remain undetermined," said Stuart Notholt, the society's director of policy and public affairs.