U.S. says autism rate about 1 in 150

[deadparrot]

ATLANTA - About one in 150 American children has autism, an urgent public health concern, said U.S. health officials Thursday who reported on the largest study done so far on the troubling disorder.

The new numbers, based on 2002 data from 14 states, are higher than previously reported.

Advocates said the study provides a sad new understanding of how common autism is, and should fuel efforts to get the government to spend hundreds of millions of additional dollars for autism research and services.

"This data today shows we're going to need more early intervention services and more therapists, and we're going to need federal and state legislators to stand up for these families," said Alison Singer, spokeswoman for Autism Speaks, the nation's largest organization advocating more services for autistic children.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/autism_prevalence

[DesertRat]

1. When I was in college 30 years ago, the rate was 1 in 10,000

I'm convinced that something in our environment is causing this dramatic increase.

[kutastha]

2. is it more people with autism

or are there more cases of diagnosed autism than there were in 1977?

[DesertRat]

4. I do think that more cases are being diagnosed

But that doesn't account for the startling increase, imo.

[shanti]

10. a LOT more things are being diagnosed now

than in the past. asthma, diabetes, GERD, it's ridiculous.

[Mend]

5. As a physician in 1977 I knew

very well how to diagnose autism. I used to see an autistic kid about every three years, now all the time. I think it is pollution and possibly the vaccines with mercury in them.

[donsu]

30. kick

nt

[brentspeak]

8. There was a TV report some years back concerning a group of austisic children

whose parents met as part of a 'families of autistic children' support group. During the meetings, the parents gradually realized that they had all known one another as children, in a New England town that just happened to have a sunglass manufacturing plant. It wasn't hard to figure from that point that the pollution they were exposed to as children, courtesy of the now-abandoned sunglass plant, had somehow affected them ; they themselves didn't become autistic, but their offspring did.

[donsu]

31. kick

nt

[MountainLaurel]

65. How sad, but not surprising

Just as Agent Orange is showing effects into the 2nd and 3rd generations after their application, so will the other poisons we pump into the environment.

[NotGivingUp]

12. that's amazing...from 1 in 10,000 to 1 in 150 n/t

[Name removed]

3. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[EmperorHasNoClothes]

6. Yet we keep pumping our children full of thimerosal

the number of vaccinations kids get these days is ridiculous. There are surely other factors, but this is probably a big one.

[NotGivingUp]

13. yep...i agree...there is no reason to be giving them so many vaccines

[Name removed]

16. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[NotGivingUp]

19. Obviously, you were never vaccinated against being rude to people who don't share your point of view

[Spider Jerusalem]

15. Thimerosal has been removed from childhood vaccines.

Several years ago, in fact. The vaccine most commonly linked (very circumstantially, one might add) with autism was the measles, mumps and rubella shot. Which hasn't contained thimerosal since (IIRC) 1999. And the link between vaccination an autism is, at best, tenuous; autism first becomes evident at about the same age at which children are vaccinated. This leads parents to blame their child's autism on the vaccine, but correlation is not causation, and several studies have been conducted which show no link between vaccination and autism (in one study, the rate of pervasive developmental disorders was actually higher in the unvaccinated control group).

EDIT: Not to mention that the neurological differences present in autism and related disorders are of such a nature and extent that they must have been present from early in gestation, when the brain begins to form; vaccination at age 2 or 3 can't account for the difference in brain structures (including the amygdala, corpus callosum, cerebellum, and hippocampus) and the difference in ratios of white matter (neural connective tissue) to grey matter in the brains of autistics.

[Ilsa]

20. I don't know what vax schedule your pedi used, ...

RE: "...autism first becomes evident at about the same age at which children are vaccinated."

...but alot of vaxes are given to infants either in the hospital after birth (like Hep B in some states), at two months, four months, six months, etc, well before expressive language is observed, which is frequently the criteria that gets the attention of parents and then professionals. I am not stating I believe there is a link, but I can't deny the possibility when there are so many vaccines given to a young immune system.

We need better diagnostic criteria for infants. I wonder about hyper-tonic musculature, delayed smile, alot of intentional peripheral gazing at objects instead of direct eye contact, etc. Some of these behaviors have been noted in autistic infants before language is even supposed to erupt.

[EmperorHasNoClothes]

57. Not entirely true.

It has been eliminated in some vaccines, and reduced to "trace amounts" in other vaccines. Thimerosal free inactivated influenza vaccines are not widely available yet for any age.

Additionally, the government has allowed drug companies to continue to sell their stocked vaccines containing higher amounts of thimerosal. The only way to know for sure if you're getting a thimerosal free vaccine is to check the specific dose you're getting.

[jahyarain]

7. all my research leads me to agree with the good Dr. Mend...

...mercury.

[EFerrari]

9. That's crazy. 1 in 150? Holy cow. How can that be right?

[NotGivingUp]

11. well, numbers like that gotta tell you something! ok, vaccine lovers, where are ya.

[catabryna]

14. It's also important to note...

that the range of autism spectrum disorders has been increased to now include PDD-NOS, PDD-Atypical, Asperger's and, from recent reading, some are now considering including ADHD as a disorder on the autism spectrum. From reading the article, it appears that they reviewed special ed records in search of children who met diagnostic criteria for a dx of some form of autism spectrum disorder. My six year old son has many austistic characteristics, though not all of them. In fact, he will be undergoing a thorough evaluation in a couple of weeks so we can figure it all out.

But, I can tell you that my son is just like my brother was at his age, and I do believe my brother probably has some form of high functioning Austism; probably Asperger's. Unfortunately, back in the early 70's, he would never have been diagnosed because at that time he would appear, to them and all the rest of us, as a geeky, socially-awkward, but highly intelligent kid. But, the further he progressed in school, the worse it became and, as a result, he didn't make it past 8th grade. At age 41, he's not in a particularly good place right now, and has never received any sort of therapy. He's now pretty much a recluse and though he is able to take care of himself and his needs, he'd probably be in a much different place had his condition been recognized years ago.

I believe it is related to increased pollutants and I won't touch the thimerisol in vacinations with a ten foot pole because I don't believe that's the sole cause of the increase. I know of two mothers who have never vaccinated their kids who are raising autistic children.

Edited for Grammar

[Jonathan50]

17. Geeky, socially awkward, highly intelligent.

Unfortunately, back in the early 70's, he would never have been diagnosed because at that time he would appear, to them and all the rest of us, as a geeky, socially-awkward, but highly intelligent kid.

That was me, the geeky, socially awkward but highly intelligent kid. I kind of suspect that I have a slight case of Autism or a related disorder. Even though I've been married for twenty eight years now, I'm still a touch socially awkward, especially around people I don't know and particularly so in groups where I don't know anyone. I too didn't get very far in school although I did manage to almost graduate from high school. School was such social torture for me that I never even considered going to college, thinking that it would just be more of the same.

One of the major reasons I ended up becoming a hippy back in the early 70's is because hippies are so easy going and unjudgemental, I felt like I fit better there than in any other part of society at the time.

I'm not shy online, only face to face. I suspect that it is because online one is only judged by one's words and ideas and I'm a good deal more fluent in writing than I am in speech although I read out loud very well. The advent of the intertubes has been the greatest boon in my life aside from marrying and having children. The intertubes let me interact intellectually with others who share my interests without having to deal with the social pressures inherent in face to face communication.

[Doremus]

22. Sounds like you've overcome a lot in your life - kudos to you!

Thanks for sharing and welcome to DU! :hi:

[Jonathan50]

24. Thanks for the welcome, Doremus. Glad to be here. n/t

[KittyWampus]

67. Jonathan, sounds more like you might be an introvert. No being comfortable

in a crowded party or caring to fit in with the hip corwd or shying from interacting with strangers isn't autism.

[Nihil]

70. Says you? (though I agree with you)

These days, any such behaviour will be labelled as "autism" in the doctor's
tick-sheet.

(cf "dyslexia")

[Ilsa]

21. This isn't about "geeks" etc. This is about alot of kids who have

some serious learning disabilities. Alot of them cannot be mainstreamed because they are incapable of handling receptive language, they take other peoples' actions as a threat, and they are capable of reacting very intensely and inappropriately.

I'm the mother of such a child. He is almost more than we can handle. Soon, he will be.

I mention this to remind people about some serious disabilities out there.

[catabryna]

23. Completely agree...

My son is in an inclusion program and, if indeed he is given a diagnosis of high functioning autism, he will probably be mainstreamed with an aide. However, he is in a special ed classroom for part of the morning with two children who are clearly autistic. While my son definitely keeps me running, my heart goes out to the parents of those two little boys. They exhibit the symptoms you mention and, while my son has on numerous occasions been on the receiving end of one boy's physical aggression, I don't blame the little boy or his parents. So, I try and teach my son about love and understanding (a nearly impossible task with his lack of social awareness).

At the same time, however, I want to say that just because one child's symptoms are not as severe as those of another child doesn't mean that child doesn't have problems that need to be addressed. The whole "spectrum" issue is becoming quite heated these days. Parents of severely autistic children are offended that a child diagnosed with Asperger's is considered autistic. Parents of children who have children with a PDD-NOS diagnosis are offended that their kids are considered to be somewhere on the autism spectrum.

While my brother and my son are in many ways similar, my brother was always agitated and could be pretty aggressive and mean. He liked to hurt people and burn things down. My son, on the other hand, doesn't have a mean bone in his body. But, that doesn't mean that they aren't both suffering from some form of autism. And, they definitely BOTH have/had significant learning disabilities in spite of the fact that they have above-average IQs.

[Jonathan50]

25. Ilsa, I didn't mean to minimize the impact of autism.

I meant no offense, sorry if you took it that way.

Full blown Autism is a serious disabling condition and I in no way meant to minimize it.

I was just responding to the words of another poster.

[Ilsa]

33. No offense taken!

I just wanted the reminder in there that there are many children who are not "mainstream-able" and are considerably disabled in their communication and ability to learn, not just the social stuff.

For example, my son is very good at figuring out some things, but he can't express what he is seeing or how it works together. He is ten and cannot even tell me what he really wants to eat or "I am hungry." My biggest ache is when he is sick and cannot tell where it hurts, etc. We know he is sick when he has no energy or cries alot or stops eating.

[catabryna]

41. I completely understand where you are coming from...

My son told me for the first time, just the other night, that his ear hurt really bad. I was thrilled at that little step. Sad that his ear hurt, but glad that he finally was able to verbalize it. And, as it turned out, the next morning, the fluid that had built up behind his ears after his recent cold drained.

And, the hunger thing, I understand that, too. My son never tells me when he's hungry, even though I know he can verbalize it. I just have to keep feeding him without even knowing if he really needs more food. For the longest time, my kid wouldn't even cry if he hurt himself. It's difficult when you have to use almost ESP powers to figure out what their needs might be. My heart goes out to you; it's hard work and it takes special people like yourself to handle special kids like your son.

:hug:

[donsu]

32. kick

nt

[anotherdrew]

18. this is also about mis-diagnoses and a lot of bullshit

the other thing to keep in mind is that they're talking about a "spectrum" of symptoms. People that 20 years ago would not have been diagnosed autistic are being so diagnosed today. In part because the definition has been slowly expanded to the point where it is now covering non-clinical situations. Parents just not able to handle that their child is different from others. The theory being that all people are the same is bullshit. This is starting to get to a very ugly point. there are different 'neuro-types' of people out there. One group, the 'neuro-typical' are basically saying everyone else is "sick" and has to be cured and/or eliminated from existence. If our society wasn't so mechanistically inflexible and geared toward producing a population of half-witted robotic worker/consumer drones, and instead treated each individual with the respect and conformed to their needs there would be much less of a problem. Instead we find the WE must be MADE to conform to THEY'RE sick little machine culture that has nearly destroyed the planet.

Now, there are cases that are rightly called autistic, and are severely effected by something (maybe heavy metal poisoning), that needs study. BUT it has to be disentangled from this bullshit about a "spectrum" where the two ends of which have nothing in common.

[Jonathan50]

26. Neuro typical?

This is starting to get to a very ugly point. there are different 'neuro-types' of people out there. One group, the 'neuro-typical' are basically saying everyone else is "sick" and has to be cured and/or eliminated from existence. If our society wasn't so mechanistically inflexible and geared toward producing a population of half-witted robotic worker/consumer drones, and instead treated each individual with the respect and conformed to their needs there would be much less of a problem.

What exactly do you mean by "neuro typical"?

I found this article to be very interesting, I suspect that those who believe in an "authoritarian" God are perhaps the people that you are referring to.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2006-09-11-religion-survey_x.htm

The United States calls itself one nation under God, but Americans don't all have the same image of the Almighty in mind.

A new survey of religion in the USA finds four very different images of God — from a wrathful deity thundering at sinful humanity to a distant power uninvolved in mankind's affairs.

Forget denominational brands or doctrines or even once-salient terms like "Religious Right." Even the oft-used "Evangelical" appears to be losing ground.

[Marrah_G]

27. Question for those following the research

I know 2 people with Autistic children.

1) My cousin had quadruplets. Fraternal Twin Girls and Identical Twin Boys. One boy is a savant type. Unbelievably gifted, with no social contact from his side. Sort of the type you would see in movies.

2) My best friend has Identical twin girls. One is Autistic, though not quite as severe as my cousin. She speaks a little, in her own way and will actually show affection if she likes you.

I just find it odd that I now know two children with Autism (before 10 years ago I knew no one who even knew someone with it) and both are one part of a set of Identical twins.

Is this common?

[LeftishBrit]

38. I don't know if autism is commoner in twins as such; but it is commoner in those who are born very

prematurely, have very low birthweight, or experienced obstetric complications - and all of these would occur more frequently in multiple births.

About 60% of identical twins of autistic people are also autistic, and many of the rest have some form of cognitive disorder, suggesting a strong genetic link. When only one of an identical twin pair is autistic, if often turns out that this twin had more severe problems during or shortly after birth, and/or was of lower birthweight.

[AlienGirl]

28. Visualize an Autistic World. How will it be different?

What will the world look like with more people on the autistic spectrum? Now that computers have made non-vocal, unthreatening communication easier and put autistic people in touch with each other, it's time to start imagining a world where the autistic spectrum becomes, if not the norm, at least a fairly common variation.

Imagine a world where people wear name tags or do other things to make their appearance more distinctive so that people who have a hard time remembering faces have an easily-memorized "identity tag" to assign to them. A world where social interactions often take the form of walking up to a stranger, finding a topic of mutual interest, discussing it at length (or at least trading facts about it), and walking away again, maybe without even learning each other's names. A world where people wear color-coded buttons to let you know whether they want no unnecessary social contact, minimal social contact, or are particularly open to social contact, depending on their mood. A world where people customarily just *say* what they mean, including how they're feeling, because no one understands complex social subtext.

http://ani.autistics.org/aut07.html This is an autistic retreat, and hints at what a world on the spectrum would look like.

Tucker

[aaronbees]

29. Thanks for that link

It's a fascinating read and valuable thing to think about. I worked four years with autistic teens at a group home and it was the most rewarding work of my life; a lot of what I value about the world I learned in part from the people I served there.

[politicat]

34. A - we diagnose it more often (instead of generalized mental retardation)

I saw the differences in diagnosis between the time I started grad school (in 1996) and the time I went into practice (1998). We've gotten a lot better at the diagnosing.

B - we see kids with a spectrum disorder from families that don't vaccinate (for religious reasons) as well as from families that do. Studies that compare the rates of autism in the general population to rates in families who do not vaccinate are the same, so while the vaccination argument seems plausible and easy, it's too much like every other piece of conventional wisdom -- looks good on the surface, but can't stand any amount of scrutiny. (Study - University of Colorado Health Sciences Population Tracking division, 2004). The big issue is that kids tend to show symptoms around the same age that we do vaccinations. Correlations, not causations.

C - 100 years ago, the infant mortality rate of 30 to 50% pulled a lot of weaker children out of the population, probably including a lot of children with spectrum disorders (since children with spectrum disorders tend to have dietary issues and issues with opportunistic infections). It's quite likely that in eras with higher infant mortality, autism was less common because children died instead. Since child mortality was higher even 50 years ago, it doesn't surprise me that the rate is going up.

[Mend]

35. there is an epidemic of mentally-ill children the likes of which,

in over 30 years of practice, I have never seen until the last 8-10 years. There are so many kids that are just plain out-of-control crazy. We don't even know exactly what to call them: ADHD, Bi-Polar, Explosive Personality Disorder, Autistic Spectrum or all of the above. Starting soon after birth to a few months later, they exhibit severe irritability, constant screaming, inconsolability, hyperactivity, obsessions, and phobias. When they are older, they are extremely aggressive: they kick, scream, bite, throw knives. They have no impulse control and no frustration tolerance. No, it isn't their parents, it is not the parents fault. There is something in the air, water, food, vaccines, something that is destroying fetal brains. We will never have enough resources to treat all these kids.

[DemExpat]

40. Sounds like the description of kids that get whipped into shape by The Nanny

on the popular behavior guidance and discipline show on tv...

Just half kidding here, but more than some of these kids just might not be getting firm guidance/leadership from well-meaning, loving parents.

Lots of problems - not of course real autism - are caused by no impulse control - for kids as well as adults.

DemEx

[Mend]

43. one eight year old boy was just killed by his parents....

they just happened to be fundies and did not spare the rod. The older children are testifying against the parents about the frequent abuse in trying to get this child to behave. The dead child's body is covered with scars. The kid was apparently hyperactive and oppositional, they never got professional help but tried the "firmness" method. I have seen this before in people who think they can win the control struggle with a mentally ill child. It can not be done.

[DemExpat]

47. Yes, this type of firmness can be deadly.

I was referring to the instructions for loving discipline demonstrated in this particular television show - "whipped" into shape not in a literal sense.

DemEx

[UncleSepp]

49. Literal expressions... goofy aside

The expression "whipped into shape" always makes me think of mashed potatoes, because after you whip a bowl of mashed potatoes, it has a shape like a Dairy Queen ice cream cone that it didn't have before.

(This is on topic... some of you will know why.)

[pitohui]

69. for the record -- all forms of autism are not mental illness

i wouldn't consider myself as a high functioning autistic mentally ill nor have i ever used mental health services or medications

some forms of autism are an illness, and some autistics are severely incapacitated

however if you eliminate all forms of autism you also eliminate the isaac newton's and the albert einstein's among us, albert einstein may not have been a well-groomed man who knew how to present a pretty face in society but i think he made a worthwhile contribution, isaac newton may have been a whacky nerd virgin who thought human sexual relations "icky" but where we would be if he had never existed?

careful with the "mentally ill" bit, a high functioning autistic may be at higher risk of depression or obsession compulsive disorder but they are not necessarily condemned to it

as a child i didn't speak for years, i screamed, it probably would have been nice for my parents if there had been some drug back then to shut me up but whether i would have had a better result from treatment is very doubtful to my mind

[LeftishBrit]

36. The criteria for diagnosing autism have changed a lot over the years

Many people who would just have been regarded as a bit odd or awkward or 'difficult' 30 years ago are now diagnosed as 'on the autistic spectrum'.

At the other end of the scale, many people who would just have been regarded as having very low intelligence in the past are now diagnosed as 'autistic'. And 'childhood schizophrenia' or 'childhood psychosis' used to be a fairly common diagnosis; now it's almost never used, and the children who would previously have had such a diagnosis are now called autistic.

I think 1 in 150 is quite a high estimate, unless one is including people with borderline conditions like Asperger syndrome, who would probably not have been diagnosed in the past.

[harlanh]

59. asperger is only a small subset of the autism diagnosis

most are kids who can't communicate or communicate very little. This is where the explosion in cases are. Many of the parents are isolated so the "regular" population isn't that much aware of the epidemic. Most "normal" people based what they know on what they see on tv ... and think it is a bunk of "Monk" type people (asperger, etc.). Most of these kids can't communicate, throw tantrums, bite, etc. So, the parents typically don't venture out much in public with their "autistic" kids (because they don't stared and glared at).

[LeftishBrit]

62. I think there are diagnostic changes at both ends of the scale...

I think that many children who in the past would have been regarded as just 'mentally handicapped' are now also diagnosed as autistic.

Many years ago, autism was not recognized very much. It used to be thought at that time that autism was commoner in children of educated, middle- or upper-class parents; but it turned out that these were just the parents who had the resources to get a diagnosis for their children; and that children from poorer families were going undiagnosed.

[enki23]

37. hugely overdiagnosed

like add/adhd

[Deja Q]

39. Seconded.

[olddad56]

42. I disagree, I thinkit us hugely under-diagnosed.

Too many parents don't even want to know. My son has been diagnosed with the inattentive type of ADD. 4 times, 4 seperate diagnosis. Three of which were using the computer based IVA assessment tool. His mother still wants to deny that he has a problem. He is the one who suffers, not her. He is extremely bright and therefore, she wants to imagine he isn't ADD. One professional told me that in his 30 year career, he had only encountered a few kids like my son. Extremely high IQ and extremely internally distracted. I knew something was wrong when he was 2 years old. I had to fight with her for 6 years before I could get her to let us try him on a low dosage of Concerta. It has made a difference, but he is still under medicated. She is robbing him of his childhood. As the quality of the air, the food, and the water continues to decrease, it is a matter of time before this diagnosis will be the rule and not the exception. Especially in boys.

[Mend]

44. I completely agree with you. Also, it is really important to have

the proper dosage of Concerta. Too little is like nothing at all.

[olddad56]

48. Thanks. I wish his mother would understand that.

I only have him 50% of the time. She give him his medication. He is 10 years old, 5'1" tall, about 85 pounds and has been taking 18mg since the third grade.

[Mend]

50. dosage should be about 0.7 to 1 mg/kg = 27mg or 36mg size.

18mg is for pre-schoolers.

[ramapo]

45. Much higher in NJ

1 in 94 and 1 in 60 boys.

Growing up, I don't remember any autistic kids. I know a few today in my limited circle.

[KamaAina]

46. It's more like 1 in 15 on this thread

there are at least four of us here, plus some parents. Can you guess who?

No? Perhaps we're more like the rest of you "neurotypicals" than you realized...

[Name removed]

51. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[KamaAina]

53. Pardon?

I am not in the "overdiagnosed" camp. Not at all. I merely wished to point out that people with autism are found in all walks of life, including DU, and that we are not "the other".

[olddad56]

55. I apologize , I misunderstood your earlier post and took offense.

[fNord]

52. This might also be the result....

of genetic altering due to the high dosage of ADD meds to kids in the late 70's and 80's. After a wile, the docs were handing this stuff out like candy.

" Does your 2 year old seem to be hyper? Does your 4 year old pester you with questions all the time? Are your kids behaving like kids are supposed to at there developing age and is it annoying you, the young parent? Then here, give them this magic SPEED pill 3 times a day. And make sure you bring them back once a month till there in there late teens for more visits and pills. My swimming pool isn't going to buy it self you know."

Well, now those kids are grown up and having kids of there own, and its possible that there are side affects being passed on genetically. I'm not saying that this is the cause of the alarming autism epidemic, but it is one of countless possibilities that we may want to examine.

Also remember, allot of the people having kids now were slamming MDMA every weekend for years in there teens and early twenty's.

Food for thought.

[Mend]

54. Dexedrine was invented in 1920. It was really handed out like

candy for everything from dieting to studying in the 1940's, 50's, and 60's. It wasn't even changed to a controlled substance and thus much harder to obtain until the 1970's. It has never been shown to break chromosomes but aspirin does.

[fNord]

56. thats what happens when you use petroleum to cure a headache n/t

[harlanh]

58. Where are the 08' candidates on this alarming health crisis?

I don't (and haven't) hear many candidates addressing/championing this issue? The same day this came out most of the media focus was on Anna Nicole Smith. That is just sad.!

[WePurrsevere]

60. They really need to do further studies of the Amish

where autism seems to be almost non-existent. We need to look at what the Amish do or don't do that others where the rate is higher do with higher frequency.

The mercury issue could be one, as could TV (as Cornell has studied) and pollution is possible as well since most Amish live in the country versus the city. What would be interesting is to study a group of Amish, a group of those who live and grow up in rural areas, and a group from the city or it's outskirts. Also do another study with the Amish, Jehovah's Witnesses (or other group where it's against their religion to have vaccines) and folks from what is considered the "mainstream". Studies like this would help in solving the riddle of "why" and perhaps lead to something that might help prevent autism in the future.

Overall I tend to think there are a few factors in such a drastically higher rate. There have been amazing medical advances and diagnostic tools in the last 25+ yrs since I was in nursing so I feel this certainly can explain some of this drastic increase however I think the increase is too drastic and the stakes are much to high to simply assume that better diagnostics is the only reason and that there are no other causal factors.

[HockeyMom]

61. Why more boys than girls?

I worked with Special Ed kids. Hands down, there were more boys with autism than girls. One of the teacher aides who served in the Gulf (along with her husband) had two kids (sons), both of whom were autistic. She blamed all the vaccines both she and her husband had to take before deployment. Both the TA and her husband also suffered from a range of medical conditions, also.

Could it be something in the mandated vaccines? Yet, why does it seem to affect boys more?

[LeftishBrit]

63. It's likely that autism involves multiple genes, and probably some of them are recessive genes on

the X chromosome.

This results in greater frequency in boys; just as boys are more likely to be colour-blind, have haemophilia and certain other disorders.

Also boys are more likely to have other disorders that affect language: e.g. specific language impairment, dyslexia. Again, probably linked to genetic factors; and also to the fact that girls tend in general to be somewhat better at verbal skills than boys.

[pitohui]

68. they say high functioning autism is an "extreme" case of the male brain

eh, i forget the exact phrasing, but the claim is made that high functioning autism/asperger's is an extreme case of the so-called male brain, the interest in finicky technical details, the lack of interest in chatting about emotions, high interest in math/science, low interest or ability to recognize and read faces, and so on

it is presumed that from the get-go even the neurotypical male is somewhat handicapped in his ability to read faces, understand emotions, and be a well-adjusted social animal -- think adult male gorilla versus adult female gorilla, the adult male gorilla can't ever really be a fully functioning member of society, he's more of a scarecrow to intimidate the foreign males, it's the females who make a decent and caring society for the children (gross generalization here of course but this whole disucssion is a gross generalization)

so there's a thought that a difference in male/female brains makes males more vulnerable to this

as a female high functioning autistic i'm fairly irritated by this argument and i'm probably not describing it correctly but you get the idea

male brains in humans may be slightly socially handicapped to begin with so there may be a bigger vulnerability there?

i dunno but so i'm told

nothing annoyed me more as a child/young adult than being told "you think like a man" but i never hear that any more, so i guess there is some progress

i don't know why in an ideal world you can't be good at math and have some social skills too

[LeftishBrit]

71. That is one theory, put forward by Simon Baron-Cohen

(cousin of 'Borat' by the way), who has done some brilliant work on autism, but is a bit off on this theory in many people's view. I think he exaggerates typical gender differences in cognition, and has no real evidence for the 'extreme male brain' theory of autism.

[SKKY]

64. The number is going up in Europe as well...

My 2 year-old son who has Down Syndrome goes to a special, "early intervention" school here in Spain. The other day, the staff was in a meeting about the need to hire 2 more specialists because of the dramatic increase in children with Autism. Last year they had 2 children in their care. This year they have 7.

[truthisfreedom]

66. "Children of men age 40 and older have a significantly increased risk of having autism"

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/02/070206095722.htm

Older Fathers More Likely To Have Autistic Children
Science Daily — Children of men age 40 and older have a significantly increased risk of having autism spectrum disorders compared with those whose fathers are younger than 30 years, according to an article in the September issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Autism is characterized by social and language abnormalities and repetitive patterns of behavior, according to background information in the article. Autism and related conditions, known collectively as autism spectrum disorders, have become increasingly common, affecting 50 in every 10,000 children as compared with five in 10,000 two decades ago. This increase is partially due to higher levels of awareness and changes in diagnosis processes, but could also reflect an increase in incidence of autism, according to the authors. Older parental age has previously been linked to abnormalities in the brain development of children; however, few studies have effectively examined the effect of mothers' and especially fathers' ages on autism.

Abraham Reichenberg, Ph.D., of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, and Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, and colleagues evaluated this association in children born during the 1980s in Israel. All men and three-fourths of the women born in these years were assessed by the draft board at age 17, during which time any psychiatric disorders were recorded. Dr. Reichenberg and colleagues obtained draft board information and the age of the father for 318,506 individuals; age of the mother was available for 132,271 of those.

Two hundred and eight individuals in the larger group (a rate of 6.5 per 10,000) and 110 in the group with both maternal and paternal ages (8.3 per 10,000) had a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder, according to the information in the draft board registry. Among the paternal age groups of 15 to 29 years, 30 to 39 years, 40 to 49 years and older than 50 years, there were 34 cases, 62 cases, 13 cases and one case, respectively, of autism spectrum disorders. Advancing age among fathers was associated with increased risk of autism. This association persisted after the researchers controlled for year of birth, socioeconomic status and the mother's age, such that the odds of autism spectrum disorder were nearly six times greater among children of men age 40 and older than those of men 29 years and younger. Older age among mothers was not associated with autism after researchers factored in the effect of the father's age.

The authors discuss several possible genetic mechanisms for the paternal age effect, including spontaneous mutations in sperm-producing cells or alterations in genetic "imprinting," which affects gene expression. "It is important to keep in mind, however, that age at paternity is influenced by the sociocultural environment and varies across societies and over time," they continue. "In a given population, a change in the sociocultural environment could produce a change in paternal age at birth. In theory, it could thereby lead to a change in the incidence of genetic causes of autism."
"Although further work is necessary to confirm this interpretation, we believe that our study provides the first convincing evidence that advanced paternal age is a risk factor for autism spectrum disorder," they conclude.
Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by JAMA and Archives Journals.

[Guaranteed]

72. Not to minimize autism as a disorder, but I do have a pet theory

that autism may be part of our continuing evolution as a species. The science seems to suggest heavy genetic involvement in its causes. As such, it could be that autism is part of the neurological variance that allows us to keep moving forward. Where it works, though, it probably often is not seen as autism, but more as genius.

[AlienGirl]

74. At high-functioning levels, autism seems to be an advantage for computer use

So (wild-ass speculation here, not to be taken too seriously) maybe humanity is evolving to be better users of this new tool?

Tucker

[GoddessOfGuinness]

75. Interesting theory...

It deserves some consideration, at least with regard to "high-functioning" spectrum disorders.

Thanks for offering food for thought! :thumbsup:

[Doondoo]

73. bump

[mhatrw]

76. Can you say INCREASED VACCINATION LOAD?

I knew you could.

Alum adjuvant used in many vaccines causes neural death in mice --

News article: http://www.straight.com/article/vaccines-show-sinister-side

Peer reviewed medical journal paper: http://tinyurl.com/3xhtdz