The discussion around AS in that other thread made me think about Autism, so without further ado, here are my rumination on the matter.

I have some experience with real brain disorders and the Autism label, and I find that Autism is a real money maker for some folks in education and medicine, but rarely is it useful as a diagnosis for the patient or their family. Sometimes, real and serious conditions are overlooked because the symptoms are confused for the disease, and by the time the mistake is realized, it is too late to pursue effective treatment.

My friend's little brother was diagnosed Autistic, but he really had Landau-Klefner, an aphasic brain disorder whose main symptom is a degeneration of the ability to use and understand language, similar to some Autism spectrum disorders. It is caused by seizures, and early treatment with anti-seizure drugs and cortico-steroids can slow or reverse the progress of the disease, but once the damage is done, there is no way for the child to recover the ability to speak. It can be diagnosed by doing EEG and brain MRI, but that was never done because the investigation stopped at behavioral observation. Now the kid is a permanent disability case.

I realize his is only one anecdote, but if you look into it a bit, you'll see how federal funds and research grants have corrupted mental health and pediatric hospitals by basically rewarding an Autism diagnosis with loads of cash. Here's just one article by Thomas Sowell on the Autism money trail.

I read this last night and on the way home a huge (expensive) Billboard planting seeds of fear in the minds of many...

the message read

'"ANOTHER CHILD IS DIAGNOSED WITH AUTISM EVERY 20 MINUTES"

I have an open mind about it, and will consider any theory, though I'm not convinced that vaccinations cause autism despite the FDA's own claim. My girlfriend works with autistic students. I'll ask her about alternate diagnoses and their relation to autism.

P.S. We humans know very little about the brain and the mind and the way they are linked to each other and to the external world.

It is the mercury ( the preservative) in some of the vaccinations that is suspect. There is a strong correlation between the onset of some types of autism and the age in which vaccinations are administered. Autism is a general diagnoses.
Most studies done, were performed and contracted by drug companies and the government.. and ..are suspect;)

The mercury was removed from vaccines years ago. There is no correlation between autism and vaccines. I hope that the comment about the studies that find no correlation being run by drug companies and the government and therefore are suspect is a joke. I seriously can't tell.

This is a link to an article from Skeptical Inquirer last year that explains the anti-vaccination movement and the evidence that debunks its claims about a link between vaccines and autism. The following passage is from that article:

Quote:

There have now been a number of epidemiological and ecological studies that have all shown no correlation between thimerosal and autism (Parker 2004 and Doja 2006). I have already mentioned that the current consensus holds that there is no real autism epidemic, just an artifact of how the diagnosis is made. If there’s no epidemic, there’s no reason to look for a correlation between thimerosal and autism. This has been backed up by The Institute of Medicine, which has also reviewed all the available evidence (both epidemiological and toxicological) and concluded that the evidence does not support the conclusion that thimerosal causes autism (IOM 2004). Especially damning for the thimerosal hypothesis are the recent studies that clearly demonstrate that early detection of autism is possible long before the diagnosis is officially made. Part of the belief that vaccines may cause autism is driven by the anecdotal observation by many parents that their children were normal until after they were vaccinated—autism is typically diagnosed around age two or three. However, more careful observations indicate that signs of autism are present much earlier, even before twelve months of age, before exposure to thimerosal (Mitchell 2006). In fact, autism expert Eric Fombonne testified in the Autism Omnibus hearings that Michelle Cedillo displayed early signs of autism clearly visibly on family video taken prior to her receiving the MMR vaccine (USCFC 2007). Meanwhile, evidence is accumulating that autism is largely a genetic disorder (Szatmari 2007). This by itself does not rule out an environmental factor, but it is telling that genetic research in autism has proven so fruitful.

Sorry for posting random stuff tonight. It's the first time I've delved into most of the forums.

So this "genetic disorder" has all of a sudden popped up from a very very small percentage to HUGE proportions in the span of a few decades? Gee, with evolution like that maybe we can breed out aggression and government by next Thursday!

- NonE

By the way, there is getting to be quite a bit of evidence that it is the shear quantity of vacinations imposed upon very young and fragile developing tissue which may be the problem, or part of the problem in the apparent correlation between vacinations and autism. And mercury is still in some, but not all, of these injections.

I must agree with you (or your quoted material, actually) that there is a problem with the "diagnosis" process itself. A problem which is compounded by the lack of a free market in the entire system. There are simply too many people's paychecks involved for proper science to prevail.

Hence, the really special* part about all of this stuff is that it is mandated by law in this bastion of freedom country.

* "special" as "special needs" is special.

- NonE

Allergies, Asperger's and Asthma are on the rise as well. Perhaps conditions that start with A are all genetic.

That's a joke.-.-.-.

The majority of the research is performed by drug companies who produce the "suspect" vaccines.
Would you agree there is a possibility of a "conflict of interest"?

They site one case of evidence stating it appeared prior to the vaccine.
and they state
"the evidence does not support the conclusion that thimerosal causes autism"
which does not say "thimerosal" in part or in all cases is not a cause or trigger of autism.

Are we fixin' to mirror the climate change/global warming thread?
He said, she said, she said, he said... (but my she said=proved The Truth-- caused I said so.)

I've sure found too often (see "politics" for one example; attorney "justice" for another) what Exy notes, relative to methods and not necessarily the specific, to be something usable/abuse+able:

Quote:

"the evidence does not support the conclusion that thimerosal causes autism" which does not say "thimerosal" in part or in all cases is not a cause or trigger of autism.

Always potentially, the ole bait and switch and slight of hand wording.

I did! I did! I did hear your mother calling you!

- NonE

There is no Thimerisol in American vaccines anymore. Thimerisol is where the mercury used to be.

Here is a table of what routine childhood vaccines contain(ed) thimerosal and when it was removed (if it has been). Pretty much none of the vaccines on the routine childhood vaccination schedule have it. The flu vaccine is one that might have it, but there are different shots at different times and I don't know how they determine who gets which one. If a vaccine had thimerosal, the table shows the date when it was removed from the formula.