California's changing diagnostic practices
Looks like people have been comparing oranges and sheep again.
Further Commentary on the Debate
Regarding Increase in Autism in California
Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, Vol. 34, No. 1,
February 2004
I have followed with interest the exchanges between Blaxill,
Baskin, and Spitzer (JADD 2002), Croen et al. (JADD 2002), and
Croen and Grether (JADD 2003) regarding the suggestion of Croen et
al. that the purported dramatic increase in autism in California is
a function of changing diagnostic practices with respect to mental
retardation (MR). These authors would be wise to turn their
attention to what appear to be changing diagnostic practices with
respect to children who are not mentally retarded, especially among
school-age children.The California Department of Developmental
Services (April 2003) reports that the proportion of "higher
functioning" children among the autism population has substantially
increased and is on the rise,with a steady decline in the
proportion of persons with autism who also have MR.
The California statistics are based solely on the population served
by the state's regional centers, which coordinate services for
persons with developmental disabilities. To many clinicians, it
appears that more and more children who, in the past, would never
have been referred to the regional centers-for example, bright but
anxious and slightly socially inept kids with average or better IQs
and children who, in the past, had been or would have been
diagnosed as ADHD, OCD, ODD, anxiety disorder, learning
disabilities, psychotic, and so forth--are now being diagnosed with
high-functioning autism and/or Asperger syndrome and referred to
the regional centers for services. If children with these other
diagnoses"really" had been autistic all along, then they are not
contributing any "real "increase to autism.
If they are not "really" autistic, they have been so diagnosed at a
time when there is heightened vigilance for possible signs of the
disorder on the part of parents, teachers, and clinicians, but
limited availability of assessors with the knowledge of autism and
diagnostic skills necessary to interpret these signs accurately.
As well, in diagnosing"autistic features"in children with normal
intelligence, some clinicians are inclined to give a diagnosis of
autism disorder, rather than a diagnosis of Asperger or PDD-NOS,
because it will qualify the child for more services in California
than these other DSM-IV developmental disorders.
The M.I.N.D. Institute in California claims that misdiagnosis or
changing diagnostic practices cannot account for the increase
inautism,
citing the finding in their epidemiological pilot study that about
88% of the parents of their sample of 351 regional center children,
previously diagnosed as autistic, had responded to the Autistic
Diagnostic Interview in away that supported their child's diagnosis
of autism.
However, the response rate for voluntary participation
in the study was only about
20%.
There is no way of evaluating whether concern about
revisiting a previously given diagnosis
(e.g., for fear of losing regional center eligibility)
was among the selection factors
accounting for the 80% refusal to participate
or whether
acceptance of a previously given diagnosis
had colored the perceptions
and reporting
of at least some of the parents who had agreed to participate.
The California Department of Developmental Services speculates that
one reason for the higher proportion of cases with autism
without mental retardation
may be "the possible recognition of a new phenotype(s) of autism."
Is it the emergence on the scene of a new "phenotype" or merely
changing diagnosis of children previously given
other diagnoses or even never diagnosed at all? The California
Department of Developmental Services has
now established best practice guidelines for screening for, and
diagnosis and assessment of, autism (California Department of
Developmental Services, 2002). The Autistic Spectrum Disorder
Learning Collaborative Project in California is working toward
developing uniform assessment practices throughout the state in
keeping with these best practices guidelines.
Meanwhile, it appears that the autism diagnosis
is being stretched to include an
ever-widening range of clinical presentations,
not just among children with limited cognitive resources,
but among children with normal or above average intelligence as
well ... .
Rita S. Eagle, Ph.D. Harbor Regional Center Torrance, California
...
Comparing oranges and sheep is an expression that was used by Dr.
Fombonne in an interview to explain the way people compare old
"autism" numbers with new "autism" numbers. Comparing the old sheep
numbers with the new oranges numbers has enabled various pressure
groups to force their idea of an autism epidemic into the public's
mind, and of course, some of these pressure groups are forcing mercury
in there as the cause for this non-existant epidemic.
Doing so helps them with their lawsuits against the US vaccine program
and it helps line the pockets of the quacks.
Autism Diva
a changing
posted by Autism Diva at 11:45 PM
13 Comments:
Blogger Ed in Colorado said...
I keep hearing that the epidemic is simply a matter of new
diagnostics. But that would mean that there has been no change
in the population, no increase in the number of LFA, HFA,
aspergers, PDD-NOS people. The people who are 50 have the same
rate of autistics as the people who are 40 and people who are
30 and the children in school today. Where are they?
If the rates are the same, then 1/166 people 50 and older
should fit one of the autistic criteria. Where are they?
Have you ever dealt with the issues of autism, even in its
mildest form? If 40-50 years ago, 1/166 children showed the
symptoms of autism, it would have been big news. 40 years ago,
we never heard of children who slept for 4 hours each night. We
never heard of children who could not look you in the eye. We
never heard of children who could not stand to be touched or
who could not talk or who would jump through their skins when
they heard bubble wrap being popped. We never heard of children
who would sit in the corner away from other children humming to
themselves.
Unless and until "Where are they" is answered, the changes in
the diagnostics are irrelevant. The epidemic exists.
5:23 PM
Blogger Autism Diva said...
I discovered I was autistic at 41.
Not Autism Diva. She discovered she had Asperger's at 44.
7:06 PM
Blogger Autism Diva said...
Ed,
If you are going to start with the assumption that autism is
new and it couldn't possibly have existed before at much of a
rate, until 1990. Then that is what you will see.
The definition of autism is just now getting around to
everyone. When Rain man came out most people thought autistic
was "artistic".
Then they thought that all autistics were exactly like Rain
man, Raymond Babbit.
In that movie he's not the only autistic in the hospital by the
way, they filmed some genuine autistic people in the day room
that was supposed to be where Raymond was.
One of them was Bernie Rimland's son, Mark.
But there were others.
Of course, that's Hollywood, but how hard was it for them to
find the extras? Makes one wonder.
Autism was once called "childhood schizophrenia". So today some
of the autistic children of the 1960's are still carrying the
label of schizophrenic.
That's the truth. Schizophrenics are supposed to comprise 1% of
the population. How many autitistics could hide in that huge
body of people?
Lots.
Then there's the problem of suicide and murder. Autistics are
prone to depression and innocent, easy to kill because no one
really cares about lots of them.
Then there are those that are locked up as criminals because
they got in with bad people or were framed or were in the wrong
place at the wrong time and confessed to doing something they
didn't do.
Autism Diva knows that there were always 1 in 166 people on the
spectrum, but more has to be done in the way of looking for
these people.
If no one looks, no one will find them.
And denying their existence is criminal. It's one of David
Kirby's and SAFE MINDS' worst crimes. He laughs and says that
there are so few autistic adults that they are hardly worth
noticing... it's the children the children the mercury poisoned
children... forget the adults rotting in institutions because
no one taught them how to speak or communicated with pictures
or computers.
Besides all that the "Geek syndrome" theory makes perfect
sense. It's not proven, but it's not disproven, either. Have
you looked at the size of some of the mercury parent's heads??
That's not a joke, it's a huge clue. No pun intented. Wide set
eyes, huge heads. Strabismus, small feet, large hands, a
specific pattern of fingerprints and palm prints. Increased
head growth in toddlerhood. Posteriorly rotated ears, no
earlobes, flattened malar area, puffy face, slack face muscles.
Hyperflexibility and low muscle tone.
That's genetics. And those traits are common in autism. They
don't cover all the kids but they cover plenty of them,
including some of the kids who are supposed to be mercury
poisoned.
7:21 PM
Blogger Autism Diva said...
Ed, Autism Diva forgot to answer your question.
Autism Diva has an autism spectrum disorder, Asperger's
syndrome. She also has a child who is more like "middle
functioning" autistic. That child was and is not "nonverbal",
but has serious "challenges".
Autism Diva has family members who are older than Autism Diva
(in her family and in her ex-husband's family) who are
obviously on the autism spectrum.
The 1 in 166 is heavily weighted away from the "classic"
autism, if you call "classic" autism something like a person
who never ever interacts with anyone, who only ever sits in a
corner and rocks. (Actually, that's probably a smart autistic
who has been abused, more than a "classic" autistic person.)
It's apples and sheep. The old way of counting the numbers
would only count a tiny proportion of the current population.
You can't have it both ways.
There has been no autism epidemic. It's a lie. Show us the
numbers that show it's there.
10:08 AM
Blogger Ed in Colorado said...
Several points:
1. If you want to say that there is an autistic gene, I will
stipulate that for you. I see it in my own family - HFA son,
Aspie nephew, Aspie niece all grew up in different sections of
the country.
2. Schizophrenic does not equal autistic. Autism has a
smorgasbord of symptoms and some of them will cross into the
symptoms that are seen in schizophrenia. Your claim that
autistics hid in the schizophrenic population is only a nice
theory.
3. If there is an epidemic, it did not happen through genetics.
Something in the environment is involved. If something in the
environment is involved then it has to fit the geography and
the time period of the epidemic. Since that would point to
vaccines, there can't be an epidemic - impeccable logic.
4. Aspies can escape diagnostics. Autistics can't. Not even
HFA. The symptoms are too severe to be ignored or written off
as something else.
5. Where are the autistics? If they are in jail, then we should
be able to find them. Suicide is not sufficient to explain the
lack of autistics in the population. If they did commit suicide
then there should be a record of their autistic existence.
Where are they?
6. The genetic aspect indicates a susceptibility while the
epidemic indicates that there is a trigger of some sort.
Obviously, such observations need to be researched. It will not
happen when the head of the IOM has declared that there is no
autism-vaccine connection and we will not waste our time
researching it.
7. My state senator told me that the added cost per year for
children on the autistic spectrum is $15000/year on average.
That is on top of what parents and insurance spend. At the
state legislative level they see what I see. Even a small
chance of a connection makes it worthwhile to ban thimerosal in
vaccines.
8. Even if I am wrong about the autism-mercury connection, I
cannot see the value of injecting 6 pound babies with a mercury
preservative when vaccines can be made without it. The fact
that vaccines do not have to have thimerosal makes it
ridiculous to put it in.
9. Have you ever wondered about the autistic progression? LFA
to HFA to PDD-NOS to Aspergers to ADD/ADHD? Have you ever
wondered about the cross-over in symptoms among these
diagnoses? Have you noticed that it is truly a smorgasbord of
symptoms where one will get a little of this and a lot of that
which is completely different from the next one? Whatever the
cause, it has to cover this smorgasbord. Under the right
conditions, mercury covers this smorgasbord aspect. Other heavy
metals can as well. The medical community has no other
explanation and will not look at the one in front of their
eyes.
10:34 AM
Blogger Autism Diva said...
Ed,
Autism Diva has been having a long series of email exchanges
with Ashleigh Anderson, a pro thimerosal causes mercury
parent... and is otherwise extremely loaded down with tasks,
Forgive Autism Diva for not answering all your points right
now.
But here's a suicide for you. Undiagnosed until after his
death.
http://brainbank.org/index2.html
A Tragic Opportunity
It couldn't be! It was virtually impossible, wasn't it? After
years and years of bewilderment and endless searching to figure
out what had robbed his son, Greg, of the ability to
communicate and relate to others normally, David Garness
realized he had finally found the answer. He frantically
summoned his wife, Shirley, to the living room.
As he continued to thumb through a February 2000 issue of
Scientific American magazine, a cold sweat crept over him as
the realization sunk in.
When Shirley entered the room, David held up the magazine that
finally held the key to all the years of confusion and pointed
to an article entitled "The Early Origins of Autism" by Dr.
Patricia Rodier. Suddenly, all the difficulties of the past 31
years flooded his mind like water breaking through a dam. He
finally knew the answers to the many questions that had haunted
him and his wife for so many decades. Their son Greg, now an
adult in his thirties, was no longer an enigma. For the first
time, David and Shirley Garness finally understood the cause of
their son's often unusual and isolating behavior.
Unfortunately, the answers came too late for Greg Paul Garness
and his family. The realization that Greg had autism didn't
come in time to invoke the community supports that Greg needed
to save him. Instead, in mid-April of the same year, an event
which forever changed the lives of Greg and the Garness family
came to pass.
April 17th, 2000 had great meaning in the mind of Greg Garness.
The calendar where he diligently kept and chronicled the
weather contained an unusual entry. Written squarely across the
top in a heavy rough scrawl, Greg noted "Liz Breakup". Across
the bottom of the date he wrote "Judgment Day". The next day,
however, ten years after the breakup of his only truly romantic
relationship, Greg Garness lay dead in the middle of a busy
Anchorage, Alaska intersection. He was shot by police who were
seemingly given no alternative but to end his life.
The events of that day left many unanswered questions not only
for the Garness family, but also for the community that
considered Greg peculiar due to his social isolation and, at
times, eccentric behavior. However, the events of April 18th
may also some day result in providing solutions for others
affected by autism. It may even be the day that establishes
explanations for researchers about the many unknown facets of
the puzzling disorder of autism.
After the tragic end to their son's life, Shirley and David
Garness truly realized that Greg had a disorder that drove him
to react the way he had. They also recognized that autism was
the reason for Greg's extreme impulsivity that day. But they
wanted their newfound knowledge to help change the lives of
others. The Garness family then made a monumental decision to
assist others affected by autism. Greg's parents decided to
participate in the Autism Tissue Program and to donate Greg's
brain tissue in order to assist with vital neurological,
developmental and genetic studies on autism.
When the Garness family contacted the Autism Tissue Program,
the first step was to determine whether or not Greg truly had
autism. The determination of an autism diagnosis was made using
the ADI-R (Autism Diagnostic Interview--Revised). Throughout
the interview, the Garness family related a great number of
examples of autistic behavior throughout Greg's life. For
example, his parents recalled him engaging in many repetitive
behaviors as a child, including continuously lining up his army
men in long rows. Greg also followed many specific routines
such as waking up and listening to the radio for specific
programs every night. Additionally, unusual sensory interests
were also related. As both a child and an adult, Greg would
fill all of the sinks and tubs in the house with water and then
stare at the water while he flapped his hands. He would engage
in this for up to an hour at a time. This behavior became so
problematic that Mr. and Mrs. Garness had to refinish their
kitchen cabinets twice due to water damage.
The Garness family also related many examples of Greg's
circumscribed interests which were evident throughout his life,
but became more intense when he became an adult. Most prominent
was his strong interest in the weather, which, according to his
parents, accounted for "90% of his conversation." For years he
had created calendars that tracked daily weather conditions. He
had also kept a journal of barometric pressure and wind-flow
patterns. Even as an adult, he insisted on watching specific
weather reports every night. Greg also insisted on organizing
certain rooms in the house. He would become quite upset and
distressed if anyone attempted to rearrange them.
After the many accounts of behavior related by the Garness
family, researchers were convinced that Greg Garness did indeed
have autism. Even though the diagnosis was made posthumously,
the Garness family was allowed to make an important donation to
research by donating tissue to The Autism Tissue Program.
One of the most necessary components of ongoing autism research
studies is The Autism Tissue Program (ATP). The program is a
joint effort of the National Alliance for Autism Research
(NAAR), the Autism Society of America Foundation (ASA), and the
M.I.N.D Institute. In 1998, the ATP initiated a national
campaign to work with advocates in ASA chapters and other
organizations by notifying potential donors and their families
of the importance of brain tissue donations.
Additionally, the program continues providing support to
families making such difficult decisions. In the past, the
sensitive nature of the subject of tissue donation often
resulted in delayed decisions by families who wanted to assist
with the program. As such, the ATP is now working much harder
to insure that individuals and their loved ones with autism can
make appropriate choices prior to a tragedy or other event
where tissue donation is an option.
Not only does the Garness family want to increase awareness of
the Autism Tissue Program, they also want to encourage
awareness of autistic spectrum disorders. They feel awareness
is the key and the most important step in understanding these
neurological disorders. Since Greg's inability to adapt drove
him to years of alcohol abuse, in hindsight his parents wonder
if addressing the real diagnosis would have changed Greg's
fate. That question may some day be answered with the results
of studies conducted by the ATP. Even though the answer will
not bring back the son who loved to fish and help in the family
business, it may eventually assist others with answers to
similar questions.
Additionally, by utilizing Greg's story, the Garness family
also hopes to bring attention to the lack of training for
"First Responder Personnel" in similar situations. "First
Responder Personnel" include police officers, firefighters, and
emergency medical technicians who need to have a better
understanding of autistic spectrum disorders. While no one will
ever know if that training might have changed the outcome that
day for Greg Garness, it might have allowed the use of
alternative procedures. Those procedures are generally not used
by police officers in circumstances such as Greg's. When Greg
walked into the busy Anchorage intersection making obscene
gestures to motorists and goading them to strike him, the
police response (had they had specific training regarding
autism) might have been quite different. First responders such
as police officers might have handled the situation in a unique
manner if they had known Greg had autism and if they had
received specialized training to help them deal with
individuals affected by autism.
Since officers in Anchorage had not received any specialized
training, it is possible that police felt they were dealing
with a dangerous offender that day. Greg did have a history of
prior negative contacts with the police. He had attempted
suicide in 1998 and had also previously assaulted an officer.
However, the Garness family questions how much the interaction
with the police on that particular day influenced Greg's
reactions and the officer's response. Records indicate that
police were aware that a person was acting strangely; however,
the Garness family feels that trained professionals would have
been on guard in such a situation. Unfortunately, officers
approached Greg and when they requested identification from
him, he began to threaten them. The confrontation ended when
Greg stood on top of the patrol vehicle, waving a gun
erratically. When he didn't respond to a verbal request to drop
the weapon and instead leveled the gun at officers, police had
no choice but to use deadly force.
Although Shirley and David Garness will probably never have all
of their questions answered regarding their son's tragic death,
their participation in the Autism Tissue Program as well as
sharing their story with others is an attempt to make a
positive impact out of a tragedy. They hope their story will
encourage others to participate in research programs. They also
wish to greatly increase the public's awareness of autistic
spectrum disorders. The Garness family continues to pray that
this tragic event in their lives will remain an opportunity to
assist many others.
Written by Marianna Bond, Chapter President of the Autism
Society of Greater Tarrant County in Texas with Carolyn
Gammicchia, Chapter Vice-President of the Autism Society of
Macomb and St. Clair Counties in Michigan.
--------
You have some kind of idealized way of looking at the mental
health care system.
The definition of schizophrenia can be used to describe
autistics, IF the clinician thinks, for example that person's
constant talking to himself is the cardinal and unquestionable
sign that the person is hearing voices.
"Autism" was first used to describe a behavior in
schizophrenics. I'm sorry Ed, but duh. You need to study the
history of psychology to see how stupid diagnosticians are.
Amanda Baggs who is unquestionably autistic has been labelled
as schizophrenic. And she's the same age as Autism Diva's
child. Autism Diva's child talks to xyrself all the time, by
the way. Autism Diva talks to herself, too, and gestures. Like
an insane person who hears voices might. But Autism Diva isn't
hearing voices, she's talking to herself and replaying
conversations and rehearsing for an upcoming conversation.
That's classic autism.
There has been no epidemic. NO way no how. Autism Diva won't
stipulate to it.
There are plenty of genes that have been identified as being
more common among familes of autistics. Those things code for
things like big heads and wide spaced eyes, large hands, small
feet.... Look at Rollins head! For crying out loud. He looks
just like Atuism Diva's father, as does Scott Bono.
give a Diva a break. These people are loaded with classic
autism genes and are pointing the finger at mercury, and no one
is allowed to point that out.
Ever seen Sallie Bernard's son? Big head, wide spaced eyes.
And his mom is in denial.
Autism Diva is not supposed to point that out, but there it is.
Immutable. These kids look autistic, they don't look mercury
poisoned. They aren't mercury poisoned, they are autistic.
1:23 PM
Blogger Ed in Colorado said...
"If you are going to start with the assumption that autism is
new and it couldn't possibly have existed before at much of a
rate, until 1990. Then that is what you will see."
Likewise, if you are going to start with the assumption that
autism has never changed, then that is what you will see. You
mentioned suicide and jail as places where the older autistics
could hide. Where is that count?
"That's the truth. Schizophrenics are supposed to comprise 1%
of the population. How many autitistics could hide in that huge
body of people?
Lots."
That would imply that with the growth of the autistic
population, the schizophrenic population would go down. Then
there would be no 1% of the population that is schizophrenic.
But seriously, the genetics of autism are not denied by the
anti-mercury crowd. We see the genes as the thing that leaves
the autistic vulnerable to the environmental trigger.
There are video tapes of autistic children before and after
vaccines. They are stunning. But if you start with the
assumption that vaccines can't cause autism, then there can't
be an epidemic.
3:53 PM
Blogger Chris said...
Breaking away for a moment from the epidemic argument to the
intelligence argument, I think that introducing ID stats to
balance autism stats is going from mist to fog. ID and autism
both have misleading clumping of many disorders under one head,
have fuzzy edges that depend on care, cost, fashion, and habit,
have enormous backlogs of dumb-as-fenceposts journal articles,
and have deep conceptual problems. You end up with two unknown
variables instead of one.
It's possible that there is only one population, made up
largely of people with speech-motor handicap, but that's quite
another argument.
And as to the issue of age, remember that for the first ? ten ?
years of autism there were no adults; it was 'infantile autism'
and anybody older didn't fit, by definition. And the really odd
thing is that Kanner didn't seem at the time to see the need to
ask what happened to these children when they grew up.
9:03 PM
Blogger Autism Diva said...
Chris,
Is ID the same as the old term "MR"?
You make a good point. People seem to think that everyone who
gets the autism label is "obviously autistic". Lots of times a
kid is just a question mark, look at the boy with the newly
diagnosed disorder. He can't talk, but he's not necessarily low
IQ, and not autistic, but for some reason he was labelled that
for a while. How he got "Tourette's" as a label is a mystery...
The thing is that say one could go back in time and give the
proper tests to all living people, so that anyone who seems
vaguely autistic was given a real professional work-up with the
ADOS or ADIR (two diagnositic tools) for example...
Today, the ones who would have come in as ASD by the tests as
children, would be found in many situations.
Some would have died, lots of people die, but probably more
autistics die from suicide and murder than the average
person... logically. Maybe more die from accidents, than
average, but maybe less .... hard to say.
Then if they don't get good teaching, and people think that
because they don't talk that they are not worth teaching...
they might be labelled low IQ or MR. They might be housed with
other MR people in community homes or in larger institutions
with the MR label.
If they could talk they might be in jail, because we tend to be
gullible, not because we tend to be criminal.
Some are professors, even ones who were late talkers, and
therefore "autistic" not "Asperger's", Michelle Dawson is a
good example of someone who was a late talker, but now has good
prosody and certainly above normal intelligence. She used to
blend in pretty well with normal people, well sort of. She has
had jobs doing the same things that normal people do, and she
can drive a car, just fine.
Frank Klein, also, someone who blends in not too badly, has had
work, graduated from High School, drives a car... was
"classically autistic" as a kid.
Some of the adults will be homeless people. Many will live with
their parents, until their parents die.
Some will have been diagnosed (this is a fact, Ed, it has
happened many times) schizophrenic. Amanda Baggs is an example
of that. If not schizophrenic, then schizoid and the other
schiz___ diagnoses can be misapplied to autistics.
If one takes all of the autistics out of the schizophrenic
group, which is huge, 1% of the whole world's population... it
isn't going to put that much of a dent in the schizophrenic
population, because the autsitics labelled as sz are a minority
of the sz population.
It is also possible that there were fewer autistics per capita
70 years ago because of societal pressures that made it harder,
but not impossible, for odd people to have children.
12:34 AM
Blogger Fuzzy Logic said...
Ed asks: "If the rates are the same, then 1/166 people 50 and
older should fit one of the autistic criteria. Where are they?"
1. There are people in that age range in adult programs (such
as Eden in NJ).
2. It is possible that the life expectancy of people with
autism was much lower, and that they never made it to 50 and
older. One veteran professional told me that the practice of
institutionalizing people with autism and medicating them led
many of them to choke on food and die prematurely.
8:10 AM
Blogger Ed in Colorado said...
I find it interesting that you should mention the genetics
aspect, Diva. Is the idea of genetics and environment both
playing a role out of the question for you?
7:32 PM
Blogger Autism Diva said...
Genetics is a huge concept, a huge field of inquiry.
A single gene can code for totally different things, so is
there a gene that codes for extra small "minicolumns" in the
cortexes (cortices?) of autistics and does that gene also code
for intestinal problems? Autism Diva has no idea.
So far they are looking at genes that tell the brain how to get
built, for instance the HOXA 1 gene, and the REELN gene. There
are other suspect regions on chromosomes that have been
identified as showing up different in families of atuistics,
but the exact genes in those regions have not been identified.
It's sort of a "needle in a haystack" process of identifying
actual genes and matching them up with what proteins the gene
codes for and what those proteins do and when.
If someone finds a gene that is present in all the kids that
got exposed to thimerosal and regressed, and that gene is not
present in other kids. Well, then you'd have something, so long
as you could tie it to something about mercury AND so long as
you could show that the kids brains were normal before the
exposure, that the mercury did what mercury can do at high
enough concentrations (destroy nerve cells).
But so far, what we see is that autistic kids have brains that
were set as autistic brains from the embryonic stage, and that
seems to be just genetic, without any dependancy on am outside
chemical trigger.
CAN is funding a huge search for autism genes, if they find
genes that autistic kids have, then they find out what those
genes do, then maybe they'll find your magic mercury
susceptibility gene. It just doesn't seem very likely that such
a gene or genes exist, and if it does it will be in a tiny
minority, and they won't be the cause of an "epidemic", because
there hasn't been an "epidemic".
8:16 PM
Blogger Kev said...
Ed said:
But seriously, the genetics of autism are not denied by the
anti-mercury crowd. We see the genes as the thing that leaves
the autistic vulnerable to the environmental trigger.
I have a particular beef with Generation Rescue who claim
exactly what you say you don't:
There is no evidence to suggest that autism is genetic. No
autism gene has ever been found and the search will be endless
- how can you have a gene for a mythical condition? Autism is
mercury poisoning
So I'm afraid Ed that there is serious upward scale,
politically motivated support for the idea that all autism both
now and historically is solely mercury poisoning.
To tackle your wider point of where are the adult autistics:
I recently wrote a post that covered that very subject. In
Scotland (the UK has a near identical prevalence rate to the
US)a 2004 report audited the state of autism in Scotland. There
was space at the end for each reporting body (Health
authorities, NHS units etc) to leave comments. Nearly half
expressed their belief that autism amongst adults was severely
under diagnosed.
Autistic adults are out there Ed. Always have been.
9:59 AM
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
No comments:
Post a Comment