Further to the answer to question S1W-6049 by Susan Deacon on 4 May 2000, how it plans to assist the study of autism announced by the Medic…

The Executive will be happy to provide, so far as possible, whatever help the research team may seek.The study will not provide information on the number of children under the age of 10 who have been diagnosed with autism since 1980.The researchers will, however, study whether autistic children have a history of other conditions or medical problems, for example, problems during birth. They will examine whether viral infections in the womb or soon after birth appear to play a role in producing autism. Representative samples of health records will be drawn from over two million people registered with 300 general practices across the UK. The research is a case-controlled study comparing matched samples of autistic and non-autistic children and will consider causal factors rather than incidence.