Trying to Stay On Topic
July 17, 2008 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
About autism, that is, this blog having the “a-word” in its title. Frequently discussion here veers off into this topic. The power of association being what it is, the more “the v-word” is mentioned, the more the belief/feeling/notion that there’s a link between said word and autism gets etched into the public’s mind. This association occurs (and is strengthened by source amnesia) no matter how much scientific evidence (and there has been more recently, concurrent with more evidence that autism is genetic) arises that disputes a link.
The good thing about the very large amount of attention attributed to this particular theory of what causes autism is that more people (besides parent advocates of varying beliefs), and in particular more scientists, have turned their attention to the topic. Epidemiology watchdog blogger Epi Wonk recently posted about the Desoto and Hitlan study on blood levels of mercury and autism. (More background from Respectful Insolence.) After going through the data used in the study, EpiWonk conclude (to state it simply):
We can conclude absolutely nothing about the association of ethylmercury in vaccines to autism from these data.
Noting that this was “relatively small data set with weird and unstable distributions of blood mercury”—hair and blood mercury levels of 82 children with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) and a control group of 55 normal children were analyzed (all from Hong Kong)—EpiWonk states that the study does not show a “significant relationship” between blood mercury and autism. The study also does not show that “there is not a relationship either,” but it is hardly the definitive proof about autistic children as poor mercury excretors etc. that the study is often trumpeted to be.
In light of the NIMH putting a study on chelation therapy on hold—-chelation being a therapy that rests on an unproven theory of autism causation, that it occurs due to mercury poisoning—careful analyses of studies that are said to show a link, and studies and books that are out there in the public sphere, are more than needed. (An understatement if there ever was one.)
Let the Peet-McCarthy mommy cage match rage on. In our corner, we’ve been swimming up a storm—-Charlie’s ready to meet the ocean waves—-and he is starting to learn that when you press one finger on the A string of the cello, it’s B, and when you press one finger on the D string, it’s E. And, with my hand just barely prompting his, he has been playing the right hand part of the first line of Bach’s Minuet in G, from one of my old piano books.
It’s a tune I like to hear.
Wow!~ Charlie is playing the Cello! That is awesome. He is so talented. I wish I could see him play.
Yup, despite it all the debate continues. Thank you for continuing to put the word out on what is really happening.
Kristina conjectured:
“The power of association being what it is, the more “the v-word” is mentioned, the more the belief/feeling/notion that there’s a link between said word and autism gets etched into the public’s mind. This association occurs (and is strengthened by source amnesia) no matter how much scientific evidence (and there has been more recently, concurrent with more evidence that autism is genetic) arises that disputes a link”.
Source amnesia also applies to the G-Word (genes) the more the belief/feeling/notion that there’s a link between said word (genes) and autism gets etched into the public’s mind.
There is a global autism pandemic and invoking ‘diagnostic substitution’ as an explanation is another word for misdiagnosis. The explosion of autism prevelance rates can be traced to 1994 and the publication of DSM-IV. In that edition, Kanner’s criteria was completly removed and replaced by the vague, ambigous and subjective ‘Qualitative impairment in social interactions’.
All of the studies implicating various labels such as ‘broad autism phenotype’, autistic-like traits, extreme autistic-like traits, Baron -Cohens ‘Autism Questionnaire Test’, Piven’s eye tracking differences etc are all defined by what they are not…. Autism.
No one has yet to provide evidence of an ‘autism’ gene that is not also found in mentally retarded people who have enough secondary isolated symptoms (commonly shared by all neurologically impaired children)to qualify for an ASD but not meet Kanner’s definition.. an impossibility since Kanner’s defintion was removed by DSM-IV, ICD-10 and all the ‘Gold Standard’ diagnostic tools (ADOS, ARI-I etc) based on DSM-IV an ICD-10 diagnostic criteria.
If you accept the validity of the existence of an Autism Spectrum Disorder then you have to accept the notion that failure of maternal-infant emotional interactions can also ’cause’ autism as evidenced by the fact that Romanian orphans who were place in horrific insitutions in infancy, were subject to severe emotional deprivation and were adopted into well-functioning English families also meet diagnostic criteria for an ASD using various Gold Standard diagnostic tools such as ARI-R ADOS and others…
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16167089?
Anyone who accepts the notion of that failures in maternal – infant bonding may ’cause’ autism, cannot possibly accept the validty of DSM-IV, ICD-10 or any of the Gold Standard diagnostic tools that can correctly identify ‘autism’.
Hey –
I’m a lurker on your blog (love it, btw).
I just wanted to say that I think it’s awesome your son is playing cello.
Before my son was born, I worked in an elementary school as a “program assistant.” Basically I helped two boys who have autism. One of them was beginning to learn violin and it was just so cool. He was so proud of himself. It brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it!
Back to lurking… ;D
Good call, Kristina, let’s stay on topic and talk about what really matters to us and our children… If I may ask/suggest an idea for a post… I’m interested in finding out more about any type of research or work being done with autistic kids that are no longer in the toddler phase, and that emphasize flexible thinking and creativity. To tell you the truth I’m not very satisfied with what the major current therapies offer (even the ones that claim to boost those areas) in that regard, so if you happen to learn about any new work being done that goes along those lines, please let us know!!!!
“…Romanian orphans who were placed in horrific insitutions in infancy, were subject to severe emotional deprivation and were adopted into well-functioning English families also meet diagnostic criteria for an ASD using various Gold Standard diagnostic tools such as ARI-R ADOS and others…”
It’s interesting that this study involves Romania where there has been a tragically high incidence of “AIDS” in children. Given that “AIDS” also involves HHV-6 and HHV-6 may be involved in the aetiology of autism, researchers may want to check to see if the autistic children from Romania that were thought to be the victims of emotional deprivation are actually also victims of a faulty “AIDS” paradigm that focuses on HIV rather than HHV-6. A child who is HIV negative but fighting an HHV-6 infection is still likely to have some major neuroimmunological problems.
I’ll invoke an A-word for the cello playing–awesome, and even a V-word–very awesome. Good work Charlie.
I am starting to question the “value” of media attention, period. Many of the portrayals of individuals with autism / related disorders have been negative, the parents come across poorly in some of these recent incidents, and the advocates can seem just plain zany.
At ASA, I mentioned that I dislike the phrase “Autism Spectrum” because I suspect, as do many others, there are several genetic, environmental, and even psychological conditions being grouped together with quite different causations or triggers. A “spectrum” implies a single cause with varying affects on the individuals. Not sure that’s the case, since we know Rhett’s and CDD (were children definitely regress about age 2) are genetic and quite different — but part of the “spectrum” people cite.
“Autism” is a description, not a single thing. That it is hard to explain during a two minute news segment or during an interview with a harried print reporter, does not help. Media “stars” can use their minutes more effectively, since someone like myself keeps hedging with qualifiers.
Genetic? Depends on “which” autism. Triggered? Again, depends on what we label as autism. (Mitochondrial dysfunction certainly has “trigger” elements.) Can a “Skinner Box” (the orphans in Romania) create “autism” symptoms? I certainly believe depravation can cause psychological traits that reflect autism, based on interviews I’ve conducted. I also don’t know what “autism” is anymore… and I’ve written hundreds of pages on the legal definition of autism.
With something so complex, it is only natural that people feel uncomfortable with the uncertainty and lack of clarity. I can’t offer any clarity — and I’m a 39-year-old researcher and educator diagnosed with “limited capability, high-functioning autistic” in past years.
Autism… we don’t “know it when we see it.” We only give it our best guess and hope we can someday be more certain.
I tend to stay away from topics like chelation and vaccines and got into a debate on twitter yesterday over a blog called autism sucks. Kids are off at camp and I am going to do some writing.
C for cello, C for Charlie!
Here’s a not quite conjecture leading into too many cans of worms: What will be calling “autism” in 50 years, 100 years……