User:Blazer00/Causes of autism

Genetic factors may be the most significant cause for autism spectrum disorders.
No source linked to this claim.

Find link for epigenetic claim
Expand on the epigenetic claim that ties into environmental contributions.

Vaccines[edit]
Scientific studies have consistently refuted a causal relationship between vaccinations and autism. Despite this, some parents believe that vaccinations cause autism; they therefore delay or avoid immunizing their children (for example, under the "vaccine overload" hypothesis that giving many vaccines at once may overwhelm a child's immune system and lead to autism, even though this hypothesis has no scientific evidence and is biologically implausible). Diseases such as measles can cause severe disabilities and even death, so the risk of death or disability for an unvaccinated child is higher than the risk for a child who has been vaccinated. Despite medical evidence, antivaccine activism continues. A developing tactic is the "promotion of irrelevant research [as] an active aggregation of several questionable or peripherally related research studies in an attempt to justify the science underlying a questionable claim."

Contribution:

A paper published in 1998 by Andrew Wakefield is the primary source quoted in the antivaccine community. The paper shows a connection between children who received the MMR vaccine then were later diagnosed with autism. However the paper did not mention that the study was published at a time where the diagnosis of autism was just beginning to be widely diagnosed.