The Blogs

Nov 22, 2011

2-to-1 Majority Envisions Personalized Medicine Approach to Autism, ASDs

Alex Philippidis

Researchers will someday develop a successful personalized medicine approach to treating autism and autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), according to a nearly two-to-one majority among those who voted on GEN's poll (click here for details). By a 55.4% to a 28.5% margin, with 16.2% undecided, respondents expressed confidence in the ability of researchers to tackle this very complex disease: Autism and ASDs are linked to different genes in different people, with multiple genes possibly involved. Those genetic factors, in turn, may interact with as yet unidentified environmental factors. GEN surveyed readers four months after a July article in Archives of General Psychiatry concluded that environmental factors account for about 62% of autism risk vs. 38% from genetics.