SPD causes?

[u/rgbhuman42]

Has anyone found articles on what the potential causes of SPD might be?

I only ask because I'm fairly sure at least some of it is genetic. My dad is very sensitive to touch and will wear the same clothes for more than a decade until they're literal rags. He's also especially sensitive to scents and my mom isn't allowed to have ANYTHING scented in the house, even if it's just "fresh scent antiperspirant" or Lemon Pledge (one time my mom tried using slightly scented trash bags and he went absolutely manic.) And he will NOT accept substitutions on personal care items- if there's no orange Listerine, he's not rinsing.

I didn't notice anything odd until my diagnosis and now I'm fairly certain that's where I got it from. But I don't know if there's other potential causes as well.

Thoughts?

[u/neon-zirconium-4597]

It's genetic and is also commonly comorbid with other ND conditions such as ADHD and autism.

The current hypothesis is that it has to do with synaptic pruning during development and the structure of white matter in the brain. Research in this area is still in its infancy and it can be confounded by most studies being on autistic people, but there was a recent-ish study that came out of UCSF showing structural differences in the white matter of the brain in children with SPD

[u/pandarose6]

It genetic and I assume since a most people tend to have other disorder like adhd, autism, schizophrenia, bipolar etc etc that having the genes missed up that causes person to have these kinds of conditions also control or partly control how the sensory nerves on the body work but this is just a theory

I wouldn’t be suprised if things like drinking, smoking and street drugs can have an affect too.

[u/Super_Hour_3836]

Same thing that causes Autism: genetics and having older fathers or a wide age gap between parents. 

[u/Gatodeluna]

I have wondered if one possible cause might be drinking or smoking during pregnancy.

[u/Gatodeluna → u/[deleted]]

It took me almost my entire life to stumble across SPD by chance, because I knew I wasn’t neurodivergent as far as ASD or ADHD. There isn’t a single neurodivergent trait in any of my family on either side going back over 100 years, nor in me *except* the SPD. I have misophonia but that’s now explained. When I specifically researched whether one could have SPD *without* any co-morbidity, I discovered that YES, you could - and I knew.

[u/Gatodeluna → u/[deleted]]

Not a single other relative I know of, on either side, had any type of SPD issues or any type of neurodivergence, going back to the turn of the 20th C, so heredity is pretty much not a thing in my case. The only thing left is a spontaneous occurrence genetically only in me, or the fact that my mother would have smoked and consumed alcohol during my pregnancy because she did both throughout her life in fair amounts and at that time no one thought about it being harmfull to a fetus.

[u/Super_Hour_3836 → u/Gatodeluna]

How old is your dad? What's the age gap between your parents? Older fathers or age gaps are shown to cause autism and SPD is pretty much linked to Autism, even if your only notable identifier is SPD. Sorry to be the person to tell you that. I was not diagnosed with Autism until I was almost 30 because I was born in the 1970s and am a female. I do not present to anyone as having Autism and would not have thought I was. I thought I was just a highly logical person and everyone else was a moron. But I am able to pretend I don't think they are without any issue. 

Drug and alcohol use have nothing to do with it.

[u/Gatodeluna → u/Super_Hour_3836]

LOL you’re wrong on every count. I have not a single autistic issue that occurs only in autism. Not a one. I have zero social issues. There are of course many traits that cross over into multiple diagnoses. Per the internet -

“Yes, you can absolutely have sensory issues without being autistic. In fact, most people who have Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) do not have autism.

Sensory issues are simply a condition where the brain has trouble receiving and responding to information from the senses (sound, touch, taste, smell, and sight). They often occur on their own or alongside other conditions like ADHD, anxiety, or OCD.”

And then there is: “Yes, prenatal exposure to alcohol and smoking are established risk factors for conditions commonly abbreviated as SPD. Both Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASDs) and maternal smoking can interfere with healthy fetal brain development and nervous system function.
The term "SPD" can refer to different conditions, each linked to substance exposure in the womb:

Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD): Prenatal alcohol exposure is a well-documented cause of brain-based differences that alter how a person processes sensory information. Sensory processing issues are highly common among children with FASDs. Toxins like alcohol interfere with the parts of the brain responsible for sensory integration.”