The Real Rain and Weather Question
November 4, 2008 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
The “rainfall causes autism?” study is garnering its share of media attention, as in this article, Study links autism and wet weather, in the San Jose Mercury News (which is curiously, or appropriately titled, depending on your views about mercury and autism).
But what about the correlation more than a few parents have noted about how their autistic children seem to become increasingly unsettled as the barometric pressure falls and the humidity rises; as a rainstorm, and especially a thunderstorm, is brewing? As the weather changes?
I get migraines when the weather changes like this. My husband has a cousin who has the same thing happen. It’s possible our kids are super sensitive and are experiencing headaches or other aches that relate to the change in weather.
Then again, just because more than a few parents notice the change, doesn’t mean it’s related. How many parents have I heard say that their children were developmentally on track and completely healthy right before a vaccine and they are considered ignorant or fear mongers and the correlation is continually denied. So…maybe it isn’t the weather causing the change in behavior and it’s just an unknown, strange coincidence.
I am very sensitive to weather changes – I can feel rain coming, even if the sky is clear. So, I can only conclude that perhaps one of the many sensitivities autistic people have would include pressure.
And, no, I really don’t think weather patterns (e.g. more rain???) causes autism. Especially since, well, that is something you just get: weather patterns. So, if there is a trend anywhere else (stock market, childbirth, number of people with red hair), surely you can correlate that to some weather trend, because there is always a trend in the weather? Sounds like a right dufus study to me! Even though, scientifically, it may be a notch up from the vaccine fantasy.
A long time ago this world began,
With a heigh ho the wind and the rain
But that’s all one, our play is done,
And we’ll strive to please you every day
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVSLVSPeinE
*anecdote alert*
I and my older daughter get migraines that are susceptible to atmospheric pressure changes.
Eleanor does not seem to either have migraines (something I wouldn’t wish on anyone) or to have specific reaction to weather or weather change (beyond getting cabin fever when housebound.)
OT but related: An Exploration Of ‘The Migraine Brain’
20 min 28 sec.
Fresh Air from WHYY, November 4, 2008
NB: Broadcast is different from the excerpt displayed on the webpage.
I am a migraineur (to use Ollie Sacks term) but my migraines (like everything else about me) are not mainstream, I get the aurae but not the headaches.
I am positive about it, because we were according to some theries, the inventors of art.
Another anecdote here…
I get migraines (which, like laurentius, are not mainstream. Mine, however, have this resemblance to seizures instead)… but actually, not from rain. But I can tell when it’s coming on my skin. Pressure can be detected by tactile means, and ASD people have higher functioning tactile senses, so it seems like my experience makes sense in that regard.
Cliff
another anecdote –
I have rheumatoid arthritis, and days that are very windy, with or without rain, are absolute murder on me. I can tell in advance if the weather is shifting, all my joints stiffen and ache terribly. During some particularly bad storms I’ve been reduced to lying on my back in agony. I improve as things clear up.
This may be why I have not yet been able to notice whether or not the weather affects my 3 y.o. PDD-NOS son – I’m often in too much pain to notice!