Comments on: Further Questions about the Case of Hannah Poling

By: Laura

Laura — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 19:51:49 +0000

Speaking of mito, I’ve been having google-induced vicarious hypochondria ever since I read the Poling case. My son had a similar reaction to his 18 month shots – fever and the rash on the belly. Also, the injection site swelled up and was hot to touch. But my son’s bloodwork didn’t show anything abnormal, as far as I know.

By: RAJ

RAJ — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 13:37:53 +0000

How autism is defined and how it has changed over the decades can be made by examining the many changes in the DSM definitions:

http://www.unstrange.com/dsm1.html

The major change occurred with the introduction of DSM-IV in 1994 and a less major change was introduced with DSM-III-R in 1987.

Leo Kanner defined the sui generis of infantile autism as a profound indifference to the existence of other people most observable in the toddler years and most remarkable in their relationships to parents and siblings.

Kanner also noted in the early 1960’s that too many clinicians were over diagnosing autism, that children who did not meet the definition but who shared some isolated symptoms that are not specific to autism but are shared with many other developmental disorders (mental retardation, personality disorders, language impairments, developmental delays, sensory impairments etc) were being given the fashionable label of ‘autism’.

DSM-III-R did include ‘marked indifference to others’ but only as one of many items in an expanded checklist, but this definition (Kanner’s definition) was dropped with the introduction of DSM-IV in 1994. All items on the checklist are given the same weight even though over 90% of the items are not autism specific. Autism rates also began to climb with the introduction of DSM-III-R in 1987 but not as dramatically as what happened with the introduction of DSM-IV in 1994.

It was in 1994 that the so-called autism epidemic began and that entirely coincides with the introduction of DSM-IV.

Population studies are useless exercises as DSM-IV began to be ever more widely accepted and prevalence rates continued to grow as acceptance continued to grow and are apparently headed to a 1 in 10 prevalence if you include the autistic-like traits in the general population, now defined as between 5 and 10%.

According to DSM-IV any child who who may be socially anxious but is affectionate and sociable at home qualifies for an ASD diagnosis as long as the child has enough other items on the vastly expanded checklist that are part features of a multitude of unrelated neurospychiatric conditions, neurological impairments, emotional problems or developmental delays.

Autism Spectrum Disorder is now a meaningless label and the previous label of Pervasive Developmental Disorder is more explanatory if it is to include a variety of unrelated conditions who may display social problems, language impairments and unusual play behaviors but who do not meet Kanner’s concept of autism.

Schopler and Rutter had a discussion about ‘lumpers’ vs ’splitters’ when it comes to diagnostic issues in autism. ‘Lumpers’ tend to offer a passport to special services to children with developmental problems who may not be truly autistic and that is certainly very positive with respect to treatment and educational opportunites, but ‘lumping’ is disastrous to research strategies because no one can say with authority, who are the recruited samples that are being used by research institutes throughout the world.

That would explain the glacial pace of ‘autism’ research over the past two decades

By: Kristina Chew, PhD

Kristina Chew, PhD — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 04:28:33 +0000

Thanks, kal—that is really interesting. I’ve been reflecting on my own son’s blood work and (I have to check) but I think everything came back normal, such as it is……. Kirby got the whole story rolling with his first post back in February.

By: kal

kal — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 03:42:00 +0000

I didn’t suspect it. I wasn’t even aware of mito disease. Our mito was suspected by our developmental pediatrician after our first autism diagnosis and after some of the standard blood tests they recommend came back abnormal. That led us to further testing and ultimately our mito diagnosis, and yet interestingly enough, further testing ruled out what is called “mito autism”. So my boys have autism. They have a mito disorder. They appear to be unrelated. And yet vitamin therapy to treat their mito has made both of them more stable on their feet and has made a huge difference in their ability to focus and in the case of my more verbal child, has helped him organize his thoughts and express them. I know this because we went off of the vitamins for two weeks and both of them regressed.

I find it all fascinating. I’m not familiar with the David Kirby post, I’ll have to go read it. I only posted the link to the ageofautism site because it better outlined the professionals involved and where they gave their diagnoses.

By: Kristina Chew, PhD

Kristina Chew, PhD — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 03:17:09 +0000

David Kirby posted the full text of the vaccine court's decision here on the Huffington Post; there are some questions as to how he got this particular document. kal, if I may ask: when did you suspect that your boys had a mitocondrial disorder?

By: kal

kal — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 02:57:02 +0000

I think the clinicians cited above were simply noting Hannah’s autism. In fact they are or were clinicians at CARD at the time– the Center for Autism and Related Disorders at the Kennedy Krieger Institute (http://www.kennedykrieger.org/kki_cp.jsp?pid=1394) — arguably one of the biggest autism research centers in the world (and not at the other “CARD” link that was provided by Dr. Parikh on his blog). It’s quite possible that the clinicians at KKI CARD worked alongside Dr. Richard Kelley, one of the top three metabolic disease specialists in the U.S. who also is at KKI (one of the doctors Dr. Poling mentions in his response to the Neurologica blog post, #6).

(also, for the full text of the Autism Vaccine case, see: http://www.ageofautism.com/2008/02/full-text-autis.html )

I think there are many kids like Hannah Poling whose mitochondria are easily stressed as infants, whether it’s through the stress of vaccines or some other environmental factor or even infection. I don’t think that means you stop vaccinating, I think it means taking a more conservative approach to the timing of them perhaps. I think there should be a way to screen for kids who might have an underlying mito disorder.

My boys have both autism as well as a mitochondrial disorder, and while I don’t blame vaccines for either, I do think it’s important to recognize that there are children for whom our current vaccine schedule is potentially harmful.

By: Kristina Chew, PhD

Kristina Chew, PhD — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 01:03:00 +0000

I thought that one of the clinicians might be an SLP—interesting.

By: Regan

Regan — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 23:16:36 +0000

FWIW,
Alice Kau, Ph.D. is a developmental Psychologist, and
Kelley Duff, SLP-CCC is a speech pathologist.

Given the medical nature of the Poling case, their particular training might be relevant.

By: Leila

Leila — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 17:36:14 +0000

Count me in as another parent who is NOT emotionally invested in this crusade to “prove” that vaccines cause autism. Even in the improbable event that I ever find out the exact cause of my son’s autism, it won’t change our most pressing need, which is the development of effective TREATMENTS to develop his intellect, speech and executive functioning.

And by the way I have more faith on Big Pharma and mainstream scientists to find the answers I’m looking for, than on opportunistic DAN doctors.