'Autism Is Genetic', Says Charity, In Response To 'False Claims' Being Peddled About It

The charity said “most autistic people are autistic because of genes they got from their parents”.

Parents editor at HuffPost UK

For the first time, a UK charity supporting autistic people has stated definitively that “autism is genetic”.

The National Autistic Society (NAS) said the declaration comes in response to “false claims about autism in the media and politics in the UK and the US, which are spreading harmful lies” and detracting from the issues autistic people face.

The charity’s research team looked at 83 studies on the causes of autism, and concluded from the findings that “autism is genetic” and “most autistic people are autistic because of genes they got from their parents”, which is why it often runs in families.

They added that it isn’t to say other factors don’t play a role, but these factors are “usually in combination with genes from parents”.

“There isn’t a single ‘autism gene’,” the charity added. “Thousands of genes combine to make a person autistic. Scientists have identified many of these genes, but they think there are still many more to find.”

NAS also warned that there is no genetic test for autism – and such testing can’t predict whether a child will be autistic or not, nor can it diagnose someone.

The update comes a year after the president of the United States, Donald Trump, claimed that taking paracetamol – or acetaminophen, as it’s known in the US – in pregnancy is linked to rising autism rates. A study from 2021 revealed there had been a 787% increase in autism diagnoses between 1998 and 2018.

At the time, Trump’s comments were condemned by medical experts, charities and Tylenol maker Kenvue, which told the BBC the science shows that taking........

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