Researchers find autism can be broken down into four distinct groups -…

Autism is a neurodevelopmental condition that impacts how people talk, work together, and expertise the world, and its growing visibility is reshaping conversations about training, healthcare, and incapacity coverage.

Last summer time, a crew from Princeton, New Jersey and the Flatiron Institute launched research highlighting four distinct autism phenotypes, each characterised by its own particular behaviors and genetic traits.

Natalie Sauerwald, one of the lead authors of the subtypes research and a computational biologist at the Flatiron Institute, reiterated that there isn’t just one autism. “There are many autisms,” she explained.

Defining autism and establishing diagnostic criteria has always been a complex process. About 1 in 150 children were diagnosed with autism in 2000 in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. By 2022, that figure had risen to 1 in 31. 

While this spike in cases looks daunting, experts explain that it is a reflection of not the epidemic of autism but a greater understanding of its multiple forms, as society becomes more cognizant of recognizing the condition, The Washington Post reported.

Sauerwald’s research, published in Nature Genetics, highlighted four distinct categories of autism, characterized by their own behavioral and genetic signatures. “That level of distinctiveness was really surprising,” she said. 

What are the four different varieties of autism?

1.) Broadly affected: This group was the smallest among the individuals included in the research, and confronted the most uphill challenges, characterised by developmental delays, difficulties with communication and social interplay, and repetitive behaviors that affected nearly every half of life.

2.) Mixed autism with developmental delay: Around 19 % demonstrated early developmental delays but few indicators of anxiety, depression, or disruptive conduct. Researchers label this group as “combined” because it varies in the extent to which people show social or repetitive behaviors. 

3.) Moderate challenges: A 3rd of the individuals concerned in the research fell into this group, showcasing the traditional traits of autism, social and communication variations, and repetitive habits, but in milder methods and without developmental delays.

4.) Social and/or behavioral: This was the biggest group, around 37 % of individuals, who met early developmental milestones but struggled with other situations later in life, such as ADHD, anxiety, depression, or obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Olga Troyanskaya, one of Sauerwald’s co-authors, explained that she was shocked by the social and/or behavioral group, which included people recognized later in life, sometimes around 6 to 8 years outdated. 

“To me, this was the most fascinating part,” Troyanskaya said. “We’ve always thought of autism as a disorder of fetal development — but that may be true only for some children.”