Posted on 01/07/2008 4:23:06 PM PST by shrinkermd
Researchers at the California Department of Public Health said autism rates in that state have continued to rise despite the removal of the mercury-containing preservative thimerosal from most childhood vaccines.
The research, which is being published in this month's Archives of General Psychiatry, looked at autism rates of children ages 3 to 12 from 1995 through March 2007 who had active cases with the department, or those who were receiving services from the state for an autism disorder.
In 1999 federal health officials recommended the elimination of thimerosal from children's vaccines on concerns about a possible link to rising autism rates seen in the 1990s.
In 2004, the Institute of Medicine concluded there wasn't a relationship between the mercury-containing vaccines and autism, but recommended researchers continue looking at autism rates as thimerosal exposure dropped.
Autism is characterized as impairments in social interaction, communication, and unusual behavior and interests. The cause of the disorder isn't known, and there is no cure, although medication and therapy can improve symptoms. Other states besides California have also reported an increase in autism rates.
Federal health officials have said part of the increase in rates, which fall under a broader definition known as autism spectrum disorders and also include Asperger's syndrome and pervasive developmental disorders, may be because of better and earlier diagnosis of the problem.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
We are all doomed!!!!
I thought the WSJ was going to stop charging for viewing articles.
Autism - the new ADD.
ping
autism rates are rising because now everything under the sun is diagnosed as autism. It’s absurd...and harmful.
Autism is supposed to be diagnosed 10 times as frequently in white kids as in black kids with East Asian types rather "in between".
My nephew, now 21, is autistic..the “original” autism. You KNOW he’s autistic. When he was diagnosed, I new very little about autism, and knew only one other child who had it. Now it seems everyone you talk to has an autistic relative. If a boy acts somewhat out of the perceived norm with behavioral problems, he’s automatically given this label and it lets the parents off the hook. It’s infuriating.
My only offspring, my Daughter, is believed to have Asperger’s syndrome. Never been diagnosed though. She’s 20 now. Got divorced when she was 2.
This is a tough one, but I believe her unfortunate upbringing in her mother’s dingy apt and lousy lifestyle is most of the issue.
Now they up & moved out of state without saying anything to me before hand (really). More isolation from me, Not good, but there’s not much I can do above calls, e-mail. Her mom is trying to use this for more Gov’t freebies whan she don’t really need it.....
Ugh.
Correlation =/= causation.
For too long, fearmongers have been using people’s ignorance of that fact to convince them that, because autism is often diagnosed when children are receiving many of their vaccines, the vaccines are to blame, although there never was evidence of a causative relationship.
Now that thimerasol has been let off the hook, no doubt they’ll jump to some other factor that happens to correlate chronologically with the diagnosis of autism and blame that.
Of course there is a rise in autism rates: the basis for diagnosis just keeps growing and growing, so that more and more children are being caught in that net. If these children now being branded “autistic” were evaluated under the standards of 50 years ago, would the diagnosis be the same?
This trend towards trying to find a pathology in every child (so that there is an excuse to drug the child into passivity) is extremely troubling.
Okay, how about this as an ‘evolutionary psychological’ explanation for the increase in autism:
Autism is due not to vaccines, but to a coincidence of genetic traits each of which would tend to make one a bit geeky. So long as being a geek was a detriment to finding a mate, autism had a relatively low incidence. But not with the increased importance of computers, being a geek (at least of the intelligent, nerd variety) is seen as a positive trait in many circles, and geeks can get laid, get married and have kids. Thus the incidence of the contributing genetic traits has been on the rise, and as a result their coincidence in autism.
I don’t think I’m serious, but it was fun to propose the hypothesis.
Now all the irresponsible people, including Dr. Stanley Monteith, who blame thimerosal for autism can admit they were wrong.
I said so some time ago...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/911036/posts
This disorder is generally accepted as a biological syndrome that affects both the gastrointestinal and central nervous systems. Children who are autistic can range from mild to severe cases, and the position of autism in developmental psychiatry parallels that of schizophrenia in validity and severity.
Almost all of the researchers in this field of study agree that genetic predisposition is crucial in the neurological foundation of autism. It has been shown that if one of a pair of identical twins is autistic, there is a 90 percent chance the other twin will be autistic. Furthermore, parents of one autistic child who’s risk is 1 in 500 of having an autistic child, rises to 1 in 20 with a second child. After two autistic children, this risk increases to 1 in 3. In addition, “the chances that the siblings of an autistic child will display one or more of the other developmental disorders with a known genetic basis – such as dyslexia or Tourette’s syndrome – are also significantly higher than normal.”
One most curious aspect is the dramatically higher incidence of this in Silicon Valley and the Route 128 area outside of Boston. Some high functioning people who work in these areas are considered “broad autistic phenotypes”. “One provocative hypothesis that might account for the rise of spectrum disorders in technically adept communities like Silicon Valley, some geneticists speculate, is an increase in assortative mating.”
This phenomena is not occurring in just the previously mentioned areas, but also in other places where a concentration of technically advanced people are having children, as well as an increase of reported rates all over the world. There is cause for alarm and an urgent need to mobilize research efforts.
The most detailed medical analysis of autism by far can be found in Topics in Clinical Chiropractic. The most detailed social analysis is in Wired magazine. The most instructive is Behavioral Intervention for Young Children with Autism. There are other sources full of valuable information on the topic. Space prohibits their inclusion and discussion at this time.
Autism remains a puzzle. It is generally believed to be a genetic disorder related to a variant allele of HOXB1, a gene on chromosome 17, possibly regions on chromosome 15, chromosome 7 and chromosome 9. A remarkable and detailed report on the etiologies, brain mechanisms, and neuropsychological phenotypes can be found in Diagnosing Learning Disorders; A Neuropsychological Framework (which may be now outdated). This following description is a valuable bit of information from this 1991 book:
…Briefly, existing evidence supports the conclusion that autism is familial, heritable and genetically heterogeneous. Among the possible genetic subtypes are multifactorial inheritance, autosomal recessive inheritance, X-linked inheritance and nonfamilial chromosomal anomalies.
Here are some sources...
Silberman, Steve. “The Geek Syndrome.” Wired Dec 2001: 176.
Brian J Gleberzon and Anita L Rosenberg-Gleberzon. “On autism: Its prevalence, diagnosis, causes, and treatment.” Topics in Clinical Chiropractic. Dec 2001.
http://proquest.umi.compdqweb?TS=1019705267&RQT=309&CC=2&Dtp=1&Did>
Maurice, Catherine, ed. Behavioral Intervention for Young Children with Autism. Austin: PRO-ED, 1996.
Rodier, Patricia M. “The Early origins of Autism.” Scientific American. Feb 2000: 56.
Bower, B. “Gene Implicated in Development of Autism.” Science News. Dec 16, 2000: 390.
Holden, Constance. “The Destiny of Autism?” Science Now. Dec 6, 2000: 3.
Pennington, Bruce F. Diagnosing Learning Disorders; A Neuropsychological Framework. New York: Guilford Press, 1991.
Be of good cheer: most of us in the blackboard sciences (mathematics, theoretical physics, mathematical economics, computer science . . .) could be diagnosed with Asperger’s if we were dumb enough to submit to a psych eval.
The fact your daughter was diagnosed says more about your ex than about your daughter: she wanted to pathologize social awkwardness.
I think you are right. I live in Silicon Valley, and there are lots of very intelligent people that live here. My household is a 2 engineer household (except that I quit when became a mom). Anyway,there are a lot of us around here.
I also think there are other contributing factors, one being misdiagnosis.
My daughter has a speech problem called apraxia. There are many kids with speech problems that are misdiagnosed as having autism. Most kids with speech problems tend to have social problems.
My daughter had a severe illness as a baby and had brain damage (could see it on MRI), so no one ever thought she had autism. However, if her MRI had been clear and she had never been sick, I am sure she would have been diagnosed as autistic.
The problem with misdiagnosis is that treatment is very different. Kids with apraxia have motor-planning problems (coordination problems), and doing Applied Behaviorial Therapy with them can really cause them problems.
Recently I came across a world of research on the internet about one of those new theories. Seems some of the kids had celiac disease (congenital allergy to wheat protein called Gluten). So, they studied that, and for those who had celiac, getting rid of the gluten improved their behavior. It didn't cure their autism, but I gather parents of autistic kids are glad for any relief.
The chemists then began examining the world of peptides to see if any of them could be slipping through the intestinal walls and getting to the brain.
Well, they discovered casein (a milk protein) has the same shape as gluten. Cut that out and some kids improve.
It's all intresting stuff but the research to date demonstrates that while some of us have inherited allergies to gluten and casein and other stuff, those things DO NOT CAUSE autism.
The autistic, like everyone else, suffer allergies!
The researchers are continuing their look for elements in the diet, but for the life of me I can't figure out what it is that white folks eat that gives them 10 times the autism rate of black folks.
It's not like these guys are all hanging off the curtain rods hooting. As you said, those in the blackboard sciences do stand a good chance of an Aspberger's Syndrome diagnosis ~ and that's while having a good time in the cafeteria whooping it up over a slimjim and a slurpy.
I’ve read that the thimerasol is still in the Hep B vaccinations which they recommend 3 doses in young infants (My children had no such shots) According to my son, they told him it is highly recommended to get flu shots in a 2 mo. old.....the flu shots still have the thimerasol in them. The shots recommended for infants and toddlers have tripled in the last few years. Where are the vaccinations made??? Do we really no what is in them???? Don’t be so trusting.
Mercury poisoning acts exactly like autism.......look up the symptoms of both. They are identical. Also, why would the Amish population have virtually no autism in their population? (that is unless they get their child vaccinated or expose their children to high doses of mercury)?
Excellent post! Thank you.
On the other hand Becker and others have noted regardless of the chemical theories of depression, that depressives are overly embedded and concerned about their family and associates.
The above approach seems to be replicated by people with widely different views as to the cause of these major mental syndromes. The descriptions seem more existential than explanatory.
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