very interesting artlcle. My daughter was first thought to have Asberger's disorder....I'll look forward to the next column.
The term "autistic spectrum disorders" exists because the symptoms in autism are so hard to "contain." Two clinics, the Amen Clinic and Dr. Eric Braverman's, actually sees all brain disorders as biochemical imbalances (sometimes from trauma).
Our autistic son seems to have a little bit of a lot of different things, and we attribute his problem to a Pitocin-induced delivery not "done well." He had no vaccines until he was 18 months old (we lived very rural until then), and I didn't know enough at that point to request non-thimerosal, but I think he may also have P.A.N.D.E.S syndrome post-antibiotic therapy for strep infection.
He was non-typical at birth for autism (good birth weight and Apgar scores, etc.) BUT he emitted a high-pitched ("cephalic") cry about six hours post-delivery only one time and I have seen subtle things that were "wrong" with his development from that point on, including a cerebral-palsy type curvature in his left leg by six weeks of age, left undescended testicle, lots of subtle things from right after birth on. I have contended for the first 19 years of my son's life (he's now 28) that before mercury-containing vaccines were exhibiting effects on the population, you can find the effect of synthetic-oxytocin induced deliveries, and the evidence exists in part in a four-hospital study out of Japan reported in the 6/91 issue of The British Lancet. At this point, Dr. Eric Hollander of Mt. Sinai Hospital in NYC claims about a 2/3rds rate of history of induced deliveries in his autism study population. That was published in Newsweek, I believe, in recent years.
After trying many different types of therapies, all more or less with success, we are looking to the vasodilation approach of Dr. Hammersfahr (of Terry Schiavo fame) probably coupled with hyperbaric oxygen (under pressure in a tank). It is the therapies that enhance vasodilation that we have seen the most improvement from in our son. Brain cells around the perimeter of damaged areas can be "awakened" by vasodilation, and I think that is where hope lies for our son.
To quote a great visionary: "Never give up."