UPSC Express

Headline : AIIMS doctors develop application to help in timely diagnosis of autism 

Details : 

The News

• In the backdrop of the World Autism Awareness Day, doctors at AIIMS have developed a mobile app for early diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorders.
• World Autism Awareness Day is observed on April 2 every year.

About the App

• The app developed is called PedNeuroAiimsDiagnostics.
• It is a questionnaire-based app which has 2 sections of questionnaire

1. Section A has questions to assess the social interaction and communication skills
2. Section B has questions to analyse the response given to questions in section A.

• Based on the response to the questionnaire the app analyses if the child has any of the Autism Spectrum Disorders
• Accordingly the following cases are considered to be suffering with ASD
• A child who cannot babble or point or gesture by 12 months
• Couldn’t say single word by 16 months
• Couldn’t say any two-word spontaneous phrases by 24 months
• Loss of language or social skills at any age.
• The App is easy to use with even a paediatrician can assess the test results.
• The app is very sensitive in that detects 98% of cases.
• It is also very specific in that it predicts specifically which of the ASD in 92% of the cases.

 

In focus: Autism Spectrum Disorders

About ASD

• Autism is a developmental disorder associated with the neurological condition of the child.
• It shows signs in the first 3 years of child development.
• Autism is a brain malfunction mainly associated with impairments in 3 main areas
• Communication skills
• Social interactions 
• Repetitive and restricted activities
• Autism mainly occurs due to abnormalities in brain structure and function which can occur due to varied reasons.
• As a result Autism is grouped under a spectrum of disorders called Autism Spectrum Disorders.

 

 

Common behavior pattern

• In general autistic individual s have different ways of ‘sensing’ their world
• Lack of emotional connection
• Lack of eye contact while communicating
• Not reacting or inconsistently reacting when their name is called out
• Hypersensitivity to noise
• Lost in own thoughts
• Hitting or biting themselves
• Lack of non-verbal communication
• Inability to follow objects visually
• Inability to make friends
• Repetitive body movements
• Repeating their own sentences

 Causes

• There is no single cause for Autism.
• Different children suffering from Autism are due to different causes.
• Some commonly identified factors include
• Gene mutations: No single gene is associated with Autism.
• Environmental stresses
• Parental age at the time of conception
• Maternal illnesses during pregnancy
• Mother who is a victim of drug and alcohol abuse
• Oxygen deprivation to the child’s brain etc
• However it should be noted that there is no conclusive direct correlation with any of the factors above listed.

 

Types

• Since no two individual suffer from Autism due to same cause, different conditions are grouped under ASD.
• It can vary between mild learning and social disability, to more complex emotional and physical disabilities.

Asperger’s syndrome

• Mild form of Autism
• Obsessive interest in a particular object or subject

Pervasive developmental disorder

• This is more severe than Asperger’s syndrome
• No two people suffering from the disease will exhibit the same symptoms
• Common symptoms include
• Poor social interaction
• Impaired language skills

 

Autistic disorder

• Most severe form of ASD.
• Multiple impairments
• Mental retardation and seizures

Note: Rett syndrome and Childhood disintegrative disorder are rare ASDs