A new analysis of the DNA of autistic people reveals there are multiple types of autism rather than just the one general disorder most people know about.

Geneticist David Ledbetter, chief scientific officer at the Geisinger Health System in Pennsylvania, says that over the past five years, they've learned there are hundreds if not thousands of possible genetic subtypes to autism.

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The different types of autism were inferred from the outward characteristic each person displays.

For instance, one person shuts the world out while tuning into his Ipad or watching a movie, while another just rocks back and forth and does little to communicate with the outside world.

Rather than classifying the different types using outward characteristics, however, researchers instead classified autism according to the person's genetics.

The "genetics-first" study will help researchers "construct a meaningful taxonomy of autism and understand the source of its diversity."

Researchers hope their work might even lead to certain treatments that address the roots of a child's autism, rather than just the symptoms.

The real promise of the genetics-first study is to find patterns of similarities among the different subtypes of autism. The patterns may help find and define common biochemical pathways that give rise to particular symptoms.

Understanding these pathways leading to the symptoms will, in turn, lead to personalized treatments.

One such example of a breakthrough is when researchers found children with mutations in a gene called ADNP tend to have digestive problems and intellectual disability.

These findings imply the possibility for personalized therapy since a treatment that benefits people with too few neurons may cause problems for those with too many.

Evan Eichler, a professor of genome sciences at the University of Washington is leading one of the first of these studies. He's convinced all autism can't be treated the same way.

TagsAutism, Genetics-first, Different types