Comments on: Me the Infection Risk

By: Donna

Donna — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 23:53:43 +0000

Since there is talk of people with autism having immune problems, might this research indicate that some of the parents are part of the broader autism phenotype and have some immune issues?

By: mayfly

mayfly — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 20:48:36 +0000

I pickup just about everything which goes around, though they rarely drives me to bed nor keeps me from work. My wife is very, very, very rarely sick. Even if I pickup something which does knock off my feet, she does not even get a sniffle. My daughter is also rarely sick.

Perhaps my wife feels less stress; though. that’s hard to imagine as she has to put up with me.

By: Regan

Regan — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 19:39:52 +0000

From the BBC,
“…Charities called for better support for parents struggling to cope.

Previous work has shown negative effects in elderly people caring for a spouse – but this is the first time that a similar result has been seen in a younger, healthier group providing round-the-clock care, the researchers pointed out…”

Get worn out, have a higher probability of getting sick or not efficiently fighting illness. I may not be reading this right, but it doesn’t seem a gigantic news flash. Respite would be good, but some respite systems seem to carry some stressors of their own.
I haven’t read the paper, but I am curious about the nature of the stressors or specific variables–generalized anxiety takes the mickey out of me a lot more than being busy and hectic, even though the latter is far more physically demanding.

By: Maddy

Maddy — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 18:28:19 +0000

That’s the second reference I’ve seen this weekend to diabetes being a factor.

I’m with xtiluv on this one.

Oops I meant ‘week’ not ‘weekend’ = where does the time go?
Cheers

By: JoyMama

JoyMama — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 18:21:16 +0000

The quote about stress probably being responsible for the immune deficiency struck me as a bit misleading, because the one variable that the article presents as apparently mediating the immune response was actually child behavior, rather than depression or perceived stress or caregiver burden. Here’s the exact quote:
“Of the variables considered it would appear to be child problem behaviour which mediated this effect.”

Then they go looking for what they expected to find:
“Although neither perceived stress nor caregiver burden accounted for the differences between groups in antibody responses they correlated highly with child behaviour problems in the sample as a whole, as well as within the caregiving group.” — Consolation prize, which lets them pretend they actually did find what they expected?

Anecdotally for myself, I felt that my defenses were down in a whole lot of ways when my kiddo’s behavior problems were peaking. Other than that span of time, though, I don’t know that I’ve been any sicker since I’ve been the parent of a special needs child than when I was just the parent of a neurotypical child, other than that the addition of child #2 to the household added one more disease vector for any virus that was going to come a-calling…

By: Chuck

Chuck — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 17:17:50 +0000

“Stress was likely to be responsible for the immune deficiency, he added.”

Correlation does not prove causation.

By: H6

H6 — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 16:46:15 +0000

Yes, stress is a reasonable conjecture, but if HHV-6 is the key to autism, it is possible that parents of autistic children are also struggling with the immunological consequences of HHV-6 infection.

If a parent who has some problem associated with HHV-6 like Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, MS, diabetes (or a wide array of other medical problems) has an autistic child with HHV-6 issues, it would suggest that more attention should be paid to this dynamic neuroimmunological virus.

By: xtiluv

xtiluv — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 16:41:48 +0000

Really?!? Stress lowers defenses, special needs add stress, did they really need a study to figure this one out?

I bet the same holds true for parents vs. non-parents, as well. Oh, what a difference a child makes! (But well worth it!)

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 16:28:28 +0000

No surprise here! I rarely get sick, but when I do I am down for the count for a week, can barely get up to use the bathroom. Once actually slept in the bathroom b/c it was to far to walk. I think my body knows it can’t get sick because even if I do, my husb still has to work and L and K still need to be taken care of. Jeff actually uses most of his sick time when I get sick. He rarely gets more than the occasional cold, but if I come down with something, my body just starts turning off stuff until I admit defeat and go to bed. Then Jeff stays home to take care of L and K. I have always been like that, though. In college I almost never got the colds and flu that made the rounds. But every winter and spring break you could almost predict that I would be in bed with a 103 fever for a week. Every year, for 4 years! No trips to Cancun or Daytona for ME!!!!