Whats the difference?

[A and A]

Between someone with ASD and another person with brain damage?

 

If i had an accident and then developed ASD symptoms would i be Autistic or brain damaged?

 

cheers

Anthony

[Karen A]

Hi.

If you are thinking of brain damage following trauma such an acute head injury then there is not a pattern of people developing the profile seen in ASD. [triad of impairments] following acute head injury.

A person may perhaps show some features that are similar to those seen in ASD but they would be very different over all to a person with ASD.

So in answer to your question you would not develop all of the features of ASD following a head injury.

I have not come across any other sort of accident that could cause a person to develop ASD features.

.

 

 

At various times in the past people have thought that low level trauma at a level that was not picked up might have caused ASD.

Autism has also been used as a general term to cover people who appear similar to people with ASD.However this would not be an accurate description according to current thinking.

 

Karen.

[A and A]

Is it not a case of people having brain damage following trauma not being diagnosed as ASD because everyone knows about the trauma?

[Karen A]

Is it not a case of people having brain damage following trauma not being diagnosed as ASD because everyone knows about the trauma?

 

I don't think so.

I am not at present registered as a nurse because I allowed my registration to lapse.

However I did work in stroke rehabilitation and as a district nurse with many patients who had previously sustained head injuries.

I cannot remember coming across a single patient that was anything like anyone I have come across here.

I have been on the Forum for a while and have clocked up enough posts to have come across a lot of people with ASD.

Most people who have sustained a head injury significant enough to have an impact in terms of displaying any significant emotional or personality changes would also have an obvious physical disability.

 

If I turn the question round another way.

A person sustaining a head injury significant enough to cause ASD if it was possible would in my opinion have been picked up unless they lived a completely isolated existence.People do not usually fortunately develop neurological symptoms unless they have suffered significant trauma.The skull usually works pretty well.

If a person does suffer significant neurological damage then they will at the very least be unwell if not very unwell indeed.

People who have significant neurological trauma go through some of the most intensive investigations of any group.

I am sure that if there was a link between neurological damage following trauma and ASD that someone would have picked up on it by now.

Karen.

[A and A]

Ok then thats pretty much ruled out. There are other things that can cause neurological symptoms or brain damage than physical damage to the head. What about those causing similar symptoms?

[coolblue]

'Autism' started out as a descriptive term for self-absorbed behaviour. The term was originally coined by Eugen Bleuler to describe one of the facets of schizophrenia. Leo Kanner identified 'autism' in children who didn't show the other characteristics of childhood schizophrenia, so developmental autism was born.

 

Because it's a description of a set of symptoms, strictly speaking if you damaged certain parts of your frontal lobes plus certain parts of your motor cortex, you could develop autistic characteristics, but they would not look the same as developmental autism because the latter, by definition, is developmental. It would be possible for an infant with brain damage to have developmental autism, but it would look different to the effects of damage to the same areas of the brain in an adult, because it would interfere with the child's developmental trajectory.

 

I think you are quite right, that if the cause of autistic characteristics is known, the characteristics are often not referred to as autism. Children with visual and auditory impairments sometimes show autistic characteristics, but are not always diagnosed as autistic because we know what's causing the behaviours.

 

Over the years autism has evolved from a description into a 'condition' even though there could be many different causes for autistic characteristics. Even though researchers are well aware of this, the tendency of the diagnostic criteria for autism to lump everyone together regardless, has seriously muddied the research waters, IMO.

 

cb

[A and A]

Muddied is an understatement ! Lumping everyone with slightly similar symptoms into one big group has to be seriously cutting the prospects of finding causes and possible cures.

 

I hope those looking for a genetic link find one soon. When everyone who has already been diagnosed gets tested, they will find at best, they have discovered just another smaller syndrome. Instead of this stupid catch all ASD nonsense.

[justine1]

I don't think so.

I am not at present registered as a nurse because I allowed my registration to lapse.

However I did work in stroke rehabilitation and as a district nurse with many patients who had previously sustained head injuries.

I cannot remember coming across a single patient that was anything like anyone I have come across here.

I have been on the Forum for a while and have clocked up enough posts to have come across a lot of people with ASD.

Most people who have sustained a head injury significant enough to have an impact in terms of displaying any significant emotional or personality changes would also have an obvious physical disability.

 

If I turn the question round another way.

A person sustaining a head injury significant enough to cause ASD if it was possible would in my opinion have been picked up unless they lived a completely isolated existence.People do not usually fortunately develop neurological symptoms unless they have suffered significant trauma.The skull usually works pretty well.

If a person does suffer significant neurological damage then they will at the very least be unwell if not very unwell indeed.

People who have significant neurological trauma go through some of the most intensive investigations of any group.

I am sure that if there was a link between neurological damage following trauma and ASD that someone would have picked up on it by now.

Karen.

Karens post is spot on I have a brother who has suffered three strokes and has most of what Karen mentioned in her first paragraph.He has speech/communication problems and some short term memory problems(not as bad as it used to be) and of course he has a pysical disability.His personality has not changed that much,he still has the same weird sense of humour and is a very likable person.However he does get angry more easily,he cant do things as quickly as he has only one hand and one leg that can work and unfortunatly its his left hand side.

 

What annoys him most is the way people assume he cannot think for himself and talk over him or dont give him enough time to process what they are saying or for him to respond.These communication problems are very similar to what my two with ASD experience but living with both conditions first hand I can see a huge difference.

 

To conclude I think that if someone has experienced such a trauma surely the ASD would have presented itself before the trauma? Unless it was in the case of a very young child under the age of two.Because,again from personal experience,I could see(and most other parents have said the same) a big difference in my ASD boys,compared with my NT boys,from when they were two/or just before then.At the time when social and communication skills become more apparent. So it would be quite strange if nobody ever noticed the person had some of the problems beforehand.

[Karen A]

Ok then thats pretty much ruled out. There are other things that can cause neurological symptoms or brain damage than physical damage to the head. What about those causing similar symptoms?

 

All of the most common neurological conditions such as CVA,parkinsons disease,multiple sclerosis , motor neurone disease and alzhiemers disease occur almost exclusively in adults therefore they are not noticed at around the age of three or before as in ASD.

.Although people with any of these conditions might show occasional similarities to people with ASD the overall profile is very different.

[A and A]

Does any one know much about dementia?

[Karen A]

Does any one know much about dementia?

 

Hi.

http://alzheimers.org.uk/

This link might help.

Karen.