"The autoimmune hypothesis is yet another autism hypothesis that is advanced primarily by parents, because it offers more hope than a neurological etiology."
I haven't done any research on this, but at the same time virtually every other chronic illness is caused, causes, and/or is exacerbated by chronic inflammation, so if inflammation during pregnancy doesn't have any effect on neurological development it would be extremely surprising.
Yep. Reading the article I was a little put off by how banal the hypothesis really is. Inflammation, including neuroinflammation, is involved in many pathologies. Whether it is a cause or a symptom is unclear, partially because it is unclear what is going on in neurons exposed to stressors that causes their dendrites to recede. If inflammation is the main cause and best treatment vector for autism, autism is in the same boat as Alzheimer's and other difficult-to-treat inflammation-related neurological conditions.
I haven't done any research on this, but at the same time virtually every other chronic illness is caused, causes, and/or is exacerbated by chronic inflammation, so if inflammation during pregnancy doesn't have any effect on neurological development it would be extremely surprising.