One of the more common and distressing co-occurring mental health issues in people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is anxiety. Anxiety disorders are present in at least 50% of people with ASD, and some estimates go as high as 80%.
The relationship between anxiety and autism is complex, and it is often difficult to disentangle symptoms of anxiety from symptoms of autism. Think about social problems in autism. Are they due to social anxiety, lack of interest, lack of competence in social interaction, or all of those factors?
Anxiety has been a hot topic in autism research because while there are no medical treatments for the core symptoms of autism, there are many behavioral and pharmacological treatments for anxiety. Treating the anxiety related to autism can greatly improve quality of life.
There has been an enormous amount of research on the neurobiology of fear and anxiety, much of which is carried out in animal models such as mice. For example, an area of the brain called the amygdala has been shown to be strongly related to fear and anxiety symptoms.5 Anxiety and fear are both normal responses, that, from an evolutionary perspective, are there to protect the organism. The amygdala has often been called a “danger detector”; and is crucial for the survival of the individual and the species.
Many neuroscientists have speculated that abnormal activity of the amygdala may lead to anxiety or a sense of fear when there is no danger present. Given the link of anxiety to autism, it should not be surprising that there is substantial evidence that the structure and function of the amygdala in autism is altered Anxiety is common among autistic people, and researchers have documented a form of it that occurs specifically in autism.
Typical social anxiety, for example, involves a fear of rejection or judgment in social situations, but autistic people may be anxious in social settings for different reasons. Unlike non-autistic people, they may also worry about losing access to a special interest or encountering a disruption to their routine.
People who experience an autism-specific form of anxiety also tend to have an unusually small amygdala, a brain region associated with emotion processing and fear, according to a new unpublished study. The finding supports the theory that some autistic people have a distinct form of anxiety, the researchers say.
The researchers presented the result virtually at the 2021 International Society for Autism Research annual meeting.
Brain scans:
The researchers used magnetic resonance imaging to scan the brains of 75 autistic and 55 non-autistic children up to four times from ages 2 to 12. They also evaluated the children for autism and asked the parents to fill out surveys about their children’s anxiety, which included questions about worries specific to autistic people.
Nearly half of the autistic children had ‘traditional’ or ‘distinct’ anxiety, or both; none of the non-autistic children included in the analysis had anxiety.
In autistic children with the distinct form of anxiety, the amygdala grew more slowly and was smaller than that of all the other children. But autistic children without such anxiety had a larger amygdala than non-autistic children. The group previously found that young autistic children with behavioral problems tend to have a larger amygdala.
However, What causes this abnormal trajectory of development in the autistic amygdala? How does this altered development relate to anxiety in people with autism? These are questions that will need further research to answer.
Because these changes in the amygdala occur after the child is born, this research may have identified an early critical window for intervention.
Reference
https://www.quora.com
https://www.spectrumnews.org/
IMUTISM TEAM