Samantha Cameron, wife of British Prime Minister David Cameron, poses with Joshua Westcott, 8, and Joshua Jones, 9, during a tour of Baston House School in Bromley, Kent, south east England, before she officially opened the school, on June 9, 2011. The center is a new facility for children aged from 5-16 who are affected by an Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC), including Asperger Syndrome.
Environmental factors may be more important than genes in determining whether a child develops
autism, according to a controversial new analysis of the disorder in twins.
That finding runs counter to decades of prior research, which has generally found that genetic inheritance is the biggest determinant of a child's risk of autism. The authors of the new study, published online Monday by the journal Archives of General
Psychiatry, came to their conclusion after studying 192 pairs of identical and fraternal twins in which at least one twin met clinical criteria for the neurodevelopment disorder.
But the authors' conclusion that environmental influences — perhaps chemical exposures, infections, diet or
stress levels — could be so influential was roundly criticized by other autism experts.