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 ...
My Daughter was never diagnosed.
I don't claim to have any answers, but it would seem to me that the Amish have a lot of other differences too, such as diet (little exposure to chemicals), low exposure to electricity, pollutants, etc. None of this (including lack of exposure to vaccines) is evidence towards or against causation of autism.
What really bothers me is how irresponsibly some otherwise professional scientists (which physicians are supposed to be) would be so illogical to suggest thimerosal was the CAUSE and not just one of many possible triggers for the disorder.
That is just generating hysteria and anxiety... something parents do not need. The children’s needs are forgotten in the bickering and legal haggling by the adults, not to mention the money that could otherwise go for research.
It used to be that some kids were just weird, odd, or unsociable - now they have to have disease, condition or some medical label applied to them.
Most physicians are practitioners. They’re not scientists.
An article here on FR a while ago mentioned that many doctors are reluctant to tell parents that their children are mildy retarded. Instead they describe them as autistic.
>>>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.<<<
Hmmmm. A little evolution 101 is in order here. Intelligence is a trait that has been selected for survival value over thousands, perhaps millions, of years. In the competition between stupid and smart, smart wins most of the time, and it’s the winner who gets to mate.
Being a “geek” also has its charms, although in former times and other cultures we might have called the “geek” names like shaman, priest, oracle, storyteller, and so forth. Mating in the human species isn’t just a matter of obvious secondary and primary sexual characteristics; it’s also a matter of engaging emotions and ideas. There’s a reason why words like “mysterious” and “dreamy” are often attached to prospective mates.
One generation of computing isn’t going to change all that.
Ppersonally, I think the rise in “autism” stems from better diagnosis and spreading the definition of the disorder to include more people.
In the meantime, let me tell you as a former single geek, I had no trouble passing along my DNA to interested women, even before computers were commonplace. LOL
Maybe you should be serious in your hypothesis. I had the idea myself and then came across Simon Baron-Cohen’s theories on assortative mating.
Since both have quite easily demonstrable physiologic identification, we know how real they are. So yes, it really does make us wonder what is happening to make these conditions so much more prevalent in our population now. It's definitely not just that we're diagnosing these conditions more now--there's something very real, as anyone who works in the field can tell you.
Is it that improved heath care allows children to survive who would have perished in previous generations? I don't think that's supportable. I believe that we should start looking at the concerns of human health risk assessors, who are pointing out that considering the risks from individual environmental factors (e.g., chemical exposures) might underestimate the composite risk.
I do hope we discover the problem soon. Living with ADD or autism can be living hell.
True...but despite this, the real autism cases are going up, also.
See, that's where we disagree. There are a lot of autism cases being diagnosed these days in guys that would have just been called 'nerds' a generation or so ago.
That is a lot of the trouble with medicine. I want a life scientist looking after my health...
Doctors should be scientists first. Research is a key ingredient for success in fighting disease.
You have research references for this???
I can find thousands that say otherwise. I have four or five listed above...
I wonder if autism could have a cause in the length of time the mother took birth control pills prior to getting pregnant? There may be a connection there.
Contrary to popular opinion, those pills are NOT 100% safe. Considering that autism is on the increase, it is either a misdiagnosis or the birth control pills, of which use is widespread.
Symptoms can be very similar, even though the causes are drastically different. That means nothing.
More and more scientific evidence is pointing to genetic factors as the culprits in the development of autism. Very often, genes that are common in one group of people exist rarely, if at all outside that group (e.g. sickle cell anemia, which affects black people). If there are very few or no autistic Amish, it is because one or more genes causing autism do not exist in that population. Their environment and/or lifestyle have little bearing on that.
See #30
I agree that the number of diagnosed cases is going up. I don’t agree that the number of cases has increased.
Wouldn't you think the gene pool in the Amish is stretched to its limit by now?
To paper over the problem, they stated that it wan't the thimerosal per se, it was the increased amounts that children were getting with the increased number of immunizations then.
So you can't just look at a few shots and cry "autism!". You have to explain why autism was next to unknown in the 70's, with childred getting a much larger exposure to thimerosal than now.
How are you?
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