A publication in the June Archives of General Psychiatry recently identified a number of previously unknown perinatal factors that increase the risk of autism. However, the authors of the publication emphasise that this does not contradict previous findings that the onset of autism is largely influenced by genetic factors.

The study was conducted on a group of 465 patients born in Western Australia between 1980 and 1995, with autism diagnosed before 1999. The control group consisted of 481 siblings of these patients and 1313 people from the general population.