This and Last’s Weeks Top Posts

2007 ended with the disability community and parents rallying together to protest the Ransom Notes ad campaign; 2008 began with a call for participants in a new study that hopes to identify and treat autism in infants of autistic siblings. Some highlights:

• A Christmas Story
  A Christmas day post that discusses the Judge Rotenburg Center; while not the most “Christmas-y” of posts, it is more about light than darkness.
• No Exorcists, Not Even “Gentle” Ones, Needed Here
  In the December 28th National Catholic Reporter, Professor Stafford Betty writes about spirit release therapy, in which “troublesome or malevolent spirits who have attached themselves to their victims” are released to treat, among other “disorders,” autism..
• No Place Like Home
  Back home in Jersey after Christmas in California.
• More Questionable Practices at the JRC
  Massachusett’s Department of Mental Retardation has given the JRC a one-year provisional reauthorization: The JRC must prove that it only uses the shock treatments for “the most dangerous and self-destructive behaviors,” and that this “therapy actually led to a reduction of those harmful actions.” The JRC also must show that it has made a ” greater commitment to phasing out shock treatments” and especially for students who are about to leave the school.
• What will the Trump Factor do for autism?
  The Donald asserts a vaccine-autism link: What will the Trump Factor add to autism discussions and research? (Well, he is already part of Autism Speaks Week in March.)
• Brothers and Sisters
  Autism may be more of a “family matter” than we think.
• That Was Then, This is Now: A Note on the Literary Corpus of Jenny McCarthy
  More mistakes in McCarthy’s September 2007 book, Louder Than Words.
• Jury Selection Begins in Trial of Karen McCarron
  McCarron’s trial in the death of her daughter, Katherine, is to begin on Monday, January 7th.
• New Study on Preventing Autism in Siblings
  The UW study is specifically looking for infant siblings of autistic children as “about one of every 20 infants who have an older sibling with autism will develop the disorder.”
• The Medication Question: Use of Antipsychotic Drugs for Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities
  A study in The Lancet has found that two antipsychotic drugs —Risperdal by Janssen and the older drug, Haldol—that are widely prescribed to many persons with intellectual disabilities to control aggressive outbursts are “no more effective” than placebos.