Unraveling the genetic mystery of autism

Until the 1970s, the prevailing belief in psychiatry was that autism was a consequence of bad parenting. In the 1940s, the Austrian psychiatrist Leo Kanner had coined the controversial “refrigerator mother” theory suggesting that autism arose from early childhood trauma, created by mothers who were cold, uncaring and rejected their children.

[I]t was not until 1977, when a couple of psychiatrists carried out a landmark study demonstrating that autism often runs in identical twins, that a more nuanced and accurate picture of autism’s origins began to emerge.

[A] variety of clinical trials have begun, all using various therapeutic strategies to try and target the single genes underpinning physical and intellectual disability in different individuals with profound autism.