Insights from New Research into Autism
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2012-04-11/insights-new-research-autism
A new report from the Center for Disease Control shows the incidence of autism in American children has dramatically increased over the last decade. A debate is raging over why. Some experts say better detection is the reason. Others say it reflects the broadening definition of autism. At the same time, medical breakthroughs have given doctors and researchers hope that they may soon be better able to identify what causes autism -- and how to treat it. What new research means for our understanding of autism.
Guests
Dr. Thomas Insel
director of the National Institute of Mental Health/NIH
Amy Harmon
national correspondent with the New York Times, she has written extensively on autism
Jennifer Walsh
parent of a child with autism
Lauren Kenworthy
director, Center for Autism Spectrum Disorders,Children's National Medical Center
Comments
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I have adopted two daughters. They are both diagnosed with Reactive Attachment Disorder. Although this is not autism, it has a very similar outcome. Neither of them has any social awareness. They are both very literal, etc. I don't know if they were born this way or if it is because of the abuse. My issue is that because their label at school is severely emotionally disabled, not autistic, they are treated as behavior problems. I am a teacher in the school system and I truly believe that if the teachers thought that my girls' mistakes in behavior were due to autism they would teach rather than punish. As it is, my children are constantly punished for behavior that they do not understand is wrong. My husband and I are working with many people outside the school system to help our daughters, but we can't get the schools to cooperate. Any ideas? (They are in 4th and 5th grade and have lived with us for almost 4 years.)
YEs great point, also point out that pregnant mothers are pressured to take the flu and whooping cough vaccines while pregnant and therefore the mercury does cross the placenta barrier!
Diane Rehm Jennifer Walsh Amy Harmon NYT
April 11, 2012
Dear Jennifer Walsh,
As a retired teacher 38 yrs teaching English in a private girls' school in Dallas & presently a learning disabled writer w/ a Masters at 67, I'm sending you BRAVA cheers. You're so articulate. Remember: each of us has a flower inside and needs to be nurtured. Never give up. THE LITTLE PRINCE always watered his flower and fought the baobob every day. Namaste.
The rise of Autisum has seemingly occured at the same time as the use of sonograms in prenatal care. Do you think there could be a corralation between the two and has this ever been studied?
Many thanks,
John R. Renner
In my profession of System Administration, the prevalence of high-functioning autism/Asperger's Syndrome and ADD/ADHD and mixed or varying diagnoses of the two is so common that it leads me (and some of my similarly geeky colleagues) to believe that ADD/ADHD is really just a subrange of flavors of atypical neurology in the general autistic spectrum or that some such subrange is so akin to ADD/ADHD that they can't be disentangled. The discussion towards the end of today's show touched on the issue of autistic people functioning independently as adults, and it is clear to me from the inside of a profession that very few people ever plan to make a career that is packed with autistic adults who never were considered autistic as kids that there need not be so much worry about the modern crop of high-functioning kids who make up a large slice of the autistic boom. Even without treatment, a lot of us managed to stumble into decent careers that suit how our minds work.
You really missed the mark with this show Diane. First, you really should have had an adult with autism on the panel. The maxim "Nothing About Us, Without Us" holds that discussions about people with disabilities should INCLUDE people with disabilities, not just professionals or parents. Second, the Autism Acceptance movement promoted by organizations such as the Autism Self Advocacy Network (http://www.autisticadvocacy.org) agrees with the Americans with Disabilities Act in believing that "disability is a natural part of the human experience" and that people with autism don't need fixing, nor do we need to prevent their birth. People with autism and their families need acceptance, the right to self-determination, and supports in order to live a full life. I hope that you will consider a Part II of this show to reflect these ideas.
QUESTION - Is anyone familiar with any research or hypothesis of the affect of social media and PDD or autism? I question if the increase of social media will benefit or be a detriment to in-person social interaction skills. Thoughts?
Testing
Environmental toxins are a factor in the rising levels of autism, however a key development that has coincided with the rise of autism is our rising levels of microwaves. It is well established that exposure to microwaves cause a subtle stress response, over stimulate our brains and open the blood brain barrier.
The stress response and brain stimulation lead to insomnia and interfere with pineal gland function. This leads to low melatonin and glutathione levels. The blood brain barrier is there to keep toxins out of our brains. The microwave effect allows these toxins in.
The FCC microwave exposure guidelines were crafted for industry and military interests and not for our public health.
We are at a critical point with 4G networks and wireless Smart Grids rolling out causing a massive increase in our exposures. People need to be warned to limit their exposures and most particularly for women of child bearing age.
References -
http://prd34.blogspot.com/2012/04/it-just-makes-sense-link-between.html
It Just Makes Sense – The Link Between Wireless Technology and the Rise in Autism
By Nancy Sarangan
http://emfwise.com/
BEES, BIRDS AND MANKIND
www.hese-project.org/hese-uk/en/papers/warnke_bbm.pdf
Public health reports
http://emfsafetynetwork.org/?cat=38
American Academy of Environmental Medicine calls for a halt to wireless smart meters
Top public health official report: Smart Meters DO pose a health risk
Although I don't think that the childhood vaccine schedule can explain autism rates, I am shocked how often reporters and commentators repeat the statement that vaccines have been proved to be uninvolved.
The only vaccine that has been studied relative to autism incidence is the MMR vaccine. The only individual component that has been studied is Thimerosol. No studies have been done on the other 8 or so childhood vaccines, nor has anyone looked at the cumulative schedule.
There may be all kinds of reasons to ignore vaccines as an element in this mystery, but research is not one of them.
I'm surprised no one has mentioned the GAPS diet for children on the Autism spectrum (and adults with digestion issues). I HIGHLY recommend the book Gut and Psychology Syndrome by Dr. Natasha Campbell McBride. There is a strong link between the sugar processed food we feed ourselves and autism spectrum disorders and auto immune diseases. You can find info at gapsdiet.com
My daughter was a premie at 2 lbs, 10 ozs (29 weeks gestation). She was born with no heart rate and no brain activity. She was revived at birth, and was diagnosed later on with Autism/Asperger's Syndrome. We had her on Individualized Education Programs all through school (she is 20 now). Because of her social problems, I seriously though about home-schooling, and whenever I decided to take her out of school because she was always alone, the school would convince me that she needed the "peer social activity", I would cave in and keep her in school despite my gut feeling.
She is now out of high school and is having many alot of issues with anxiety as far as college, work, anything to where she has to communicate with people. She has had mental health counseling (through state health with a therapist who had a speech impediment) and doesn't look forward to the future despite her dad and I's plus friends and family's total support. So, now where do we go? It seems like once out of school, there is no support for high functioning autistic kids for jobs or anything. Right before this show, I spent an hour crying with my daughter and assuring her things will be OK. I hope whatever they do change in the diagnosis of autism, that they will think of what happens when they become adults.
In response to Olygirl:
I have a daughter with high functioning autism/asperger's syndrome. She is 20 years old and, in the last 7 years has been having stomach problems. I have taken her to the doctor, I can't how many times but the file on her prescriptions is about 2 inches thick. I've we don't eat alot of sugar but we do eat alot of processed food. I will certainly check this out. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
With this wide definition of autism, many high functioning professionals such as scientists, doctors etc might be classified as mildly autistic as they sometimes lack social skill including eye contact. Dr. Temperance Brennan of the "Bones" TV series might be such an individual based on her social skills. Socialization of the young through various talk therapies can improve or mainstream personalities if that's what a parent wants to do so for their child or for the adult. This seems to be a respnsiblity of the individual for life enrichment endeavors.
Many people suggest that much if not most of the increase in the reported cases of autism is of artificial construct (expanded diagnosis, better recognition). There are several points that need to be addresssed in this particular matter.
To begin with, the expansion of ASD which occurred with the DSM-3R and DSM-4 dod not materially change core autism as much as adding PDD-NOS and finally recognizing Asperger Syndrome, which was initially described in Europe at the same time that kanner described autism. It is very true that these individuals would not have been counted as autistic prior to the studies conducted by the CDC over the last decade plus, beginning with Brick in 1996.
However, the very intensive studies conducted since Brick have found that core autism represents about half of the total population. So even if we cut the recent prevalance figures in half to account for this, we are still seeing a tremendous increase over the numbers tallied in the 70s and 80s. The change in published figures after Brick was a magnitude of 20 (1-2 in 10,000 became 4 in 1,000 with a single study). this cannot be explained away by diagnostic criteria or simple recognition.
Secondly, when we look at the criteria for diagnosing core autism itself, we can see that what actually occured was a restricting of the criteria between the time Kanner examined his first 11 kids, and the tweaks to the criteria that occurred in DSM-3R and DSM-4 actually brought today's criteria back to where it should have been all along.
Something else that is poorly understood, even by many in professionals circles, is that the numbers that the CDC has published in 2007, 2009 and this past year represent patients who were born significantly earlier. The 2007 number of 1 in 150 was tabulated in 2002 on 8 year olds in 6 states, meaning these kids were born in 1994. Formal publication of studies are difficult at best to get to the journals rapidly, but why the CDC sat on this for 5 years only they can answer. Likewise, the 1 in 110 figure published in 2009 was from a study conducted in 2004 on children born in 1996, and the most recent figure of 1 in 88 was derived in 2008 on kids born in 2000.
What makes this significant is that the figures are being trumpeted by the media as current, when they are at least a decade out of date. There are several implications to this, not the least of which is that claims that specific environmental exposures that have been suggested as triggering autism which have been removed after 2000 could not be the cause because prevalance figures climbed over the last decade are seen as false, since at the rate the CDC conducts prevalance studies we will not know the rates of autism for children born in the last decade until late in the current decade.
Poling and Banks.
Has there been research connecting the increased use of video/computers/games at earlier and earlier ages to the rise in Autism?
This comment is one of the most repeated myths about autism
…Like the idea that autism is caused by childhood vaccines, which has been thoroughly debunked. Even though it has, it's led to a serious public health problem in places where parents are refusing to get their kids vaccinated and there have been outbreaks of measles and whooping cough. ...There may be environmental factors involved. We don't know what they are.
How can studying ONE vaccine and ONE ingredient out of the countless vaccines a young child receives before the age of 3 debunk anything? Show us the studies of children that have had all their vaccinations and compare them to the same age children that have never had vaccines, or on a modified schedule and then let US compare the rates of autism within those 2 groups. Like she said, more and more parents are withholding vaccinations, so the control group should be very easy to find. The unwillingness to look at this simple comparison makes me feel like big pharma is hiding a huge trend.
Who is going to take care of the millions of autistic adults that have lost services and now depend on the government for the basics of life?
A huge concern I have is why aren't babies being prescreened for a family history of auto immune disease that may put them at serious risk for adverse reaction to vaccines. This should be done for all infants prior to vaccinating. Immune response varies from person to person and some children have very senstive immune systems.
Children with autism have been found to have a family history of auto immune and neuropschyiatric disease yet despite this noone is suggesting pre-screening these babies and putting them on a safer alternate schedule prior to getting shots. That is criminal!
For more background, read:
Association of Family History of Autoimmune Diseases and Autism Spectrum Disorders- Pediatrics
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/124/2/687