TV As The Cause of Autism Study

[Demeter]

OpEdNews.com

Original Content at http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_kendra_p_061021_tv_as_the_cause_of_a.htm


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October 21, 2006

TV As The Cause of Autism Study


Message to the authors of the study at Cornell University.

First and foremost this is a perfect example of what happens when economists that know nothing of a medical condition try to find some statistical relationship between their beloved data and a condition.

The fact that this study went beyond a water-cooler joke and actually consumed the time, energy, and money required of such a study is beyond irresponsible, it is a slap in the face to the families devastated by this disease and the children who will suffer from it for their lifetime. The fact it was given any relevance and actually reported by someone in the media, as well as being officially announced by the University is reprehensible.

Anyone that seriously looks at the current Autism epidemic must be mindful and cautious of how they approach such a study. After all, this is the disorder once associated with cold and unloving "refrigerator Mothers". Beyond the accusation, many of these families had their children ripped from their arms and the mothers were forced into psychiatric treatment, including electro-shock therapy. The accusations, speculations, and stabs at families have not stopped, even after Dr. Bernard Rimland's clarification that this is a biological illness. Many still believe it results from 'bad parenting'.

We have recently seen other speculative research pointing at 'old dads' and now the most obnoxious and almost light-hearted approach to a serious life-altering ailment, watching television as a cause of autism. This study supports the idiots out there telling us if we would just play with our children and be a parent our kids wouldn't have this problem. So, now those of us with Autistic children it is to be believed, simply stuck our "infants" in front of a TV, again being cold, uncaring, bad parents. It wasn't said, but the insinuations are there all the same.

The first question to those conducting this study must be, "what was their knowledge of Autism before they embarked on this reckless research"?

AUTHOR THEN TEARS INTO THEM WITH ALL THE VICIOUSNESS THEY DESERVE!

Written by:
Kendra Pettengill
Roseburg, Oregon
Parent of an Autistic Child

[tavalon]

1. I was mortified when I saw the title of this thread

and gratified by it once I read the letter. As a mother of an autistic son, the idea that TV caused it is insulting and ludicrous. Now, if TV were preserved with thimerosal and had my son been given multiple shots laced with TV preserved with thimerosal, then we might have a possible working theory going, otherwise it is hogwash.

[Warpy]

2. Jeez, there has been so much recent research coming out

about autism, why the hell was a study like that even considered? Who the hell funded it?

More and more research is showing that markers for autism can be detected in cord blood at birth (although the extent of the problem won't be known for years), that the brains of autistic people function very differently from normal brains, and that it is most likely a problem that begins in utero, either genetically or due to the thousands of environmental contaminants we all face daily, or a combination of both.

"Blame Mom" research is as old as time and as evil as Satan, blaming all sorts of physical, emotional and behavioral problems on normal parenting, including leaving first a radio and later a TV on while the delicate fruit of one's loins was in the room.

The OP is right. This is bullshit.

[acmejack]

3. No more ridiculous than blaming it on engineers who smoked pot in college

IMHO...

[Nozebro]

4. You didn't refute the findings & surely you would have if it weren't true.

Just disagreeing isn't sufficient.

[Demeter]

5. A Random Statistical Correlation Is NOT a "Finding"

there are such things as coincidences. This was no study.

[bananas]

6. Do you have a link to the study? nt

[jumpoffdaplanet]

7. We wouldn't want to take the focus off...

a chemical that hasn't been used in years.

Really, pet reasons need to be protected at all costs.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

8. These people could not be more incorrect if they

tried to.

www.HRIPTC.org



http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=AbstractPlus&list_uids=17018868&query_hl=1&itool=pubmed_docsum

1: Exp Biol Med (Maywood). 2006 Oct;231(9):1468-73.Click here to read Links
Metallothioneins: mercury species-specific induction and their potential role in attenuating neurotoxicity.

* Aschner M,
* Syversen T,
* Souza DO,
* Rocha JB.

Department of Pediatrics, B-3307 Medical Center North, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN 37232-2495, USA. [e-mail]

Metallothionein (MT) proteins are widespread in bacteria, fungi, plants, and eukaryotic species. They are of low molecular weight (6-7 kDa) and of the 60+ amino acid residues, 20 are cysteines. Functions attributed to MTs include the sequestration and dispersal of metal ions, primarily in zinc and copper homeostasis; regulation of the biosynthesis and activity of zinc metalloproteins, most notably zinc-dependent transcription factors; and cellular cytoprotection from reactive oxygen species, ionizing radiation, electrophilic anticancer drugs and mutagens, and metals. Observations on the abundance of MTs within the central nervous system (CNS) and the identification of a brain-specific isoform, MT-III, suggest that it might have important neurophysiological and neuromodulatory functions. Reinforced by the potential involvement of MT-III in a number of neurodegenerative disorders, the role of MTs in the CNS has become an intense focus of scientific pursuit. This manuscript represents a survey on the ability of MTs to modulate mercury neurotoxicity, a neurotoxin that has been implied to play an etiologic role in Minamata disease, erethism, and autism, just to name a few.

PMID: 17018868

ON EDIT TO ADD THIS DOSE OF REALITY:

1: J Child Neurol. 2006 Jun;21(6):444-9.Click here to read Links
High levels of Alzheimer beta-amyloid precursor protein (APP) in children with severely autistic behavior and aggression.

* Sokol DK,
* Chen D,
* Farlow MR,
* Dunn DW,
* Maloney B,
* Zimmer JA,
* Lahiri DK.

Department of Neurology, Indiana University School of Medicine, 702 Barnhill Drive, Indianapolis, IN 46202, USA. [e-mail]

Autism is characterized by restricted, repetitive behaviors and impairment in socialization and communication. Although no neuropathologic substrate underlying autism has been found, the findings of brain overgrowth via neuroimaging studies and increased levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in neuropathologic and blood studies favor an anabolic state. We examined acetylcholinesterase, plasma neuronal proteins, secreted beta-amyloid precursor protein (APP), and amyloid-beta 40 and amyloid-beta 42 peptides in children with and without autism. Children with severe autism and aggression expressed secreted beta-amyloid precursor protein at two or more times the levels of children without autism and up to four times more than children with mild autism. There was a trend for children with autism to show higher levels of secreted beta-amyloid precursor protein and nonamyloidogenic secreted beta-amyloid precursor protein and lower levels of amyloid-beta 40 compared with controls. This favors an increased alpha-secretase pathway in autism (anabolic), opposite to what is seen in Alzheimer disease. Additionally, a complex relationship between age, acetylcholinesterase, and plasma neuronal markers was found.

PMID: 16948926

[Igel]

9. Here's the "study".

http://www.johnson.cornell.edu/faculty/profiles/Waldman/AUTISM-WALDMAN-NICHOLSON-ADILOV.pdf

I'm not convinced it's not a spoof. I've seen some serious ones. And in this case, what he's spoofing is serious. There's non-spoof in the article, but a good spoof has to have non-spoofy bits.

Waldman's done stuff with autism before, Google scholar tells me; it's an interest, so he's probably done the readings for other things. And I suspect that at some point he read some correlation taken to be fact, and mocked it with some colleagues or RAs. After all, spurious correlations are the bane of researchers, and the playthings of simple minds. (Notice how increased rainfall immediately gets translated into mercury exposure ... at least for 1-year-olds who sit out in the rain all day.)

Note that there are three "important" studies on which they base their methodology; one looks at the effect of abortion on crime (2001), another looks at police hiring/electoral cycles on crime, and a third looks at month of birth as effecting educational outcome (compulsory school attendance versus schooling and earnings). Hardly "important". And other articles that might rightly be mocked for confusing correlation with causality--perhaps contributing factors, but good luck showing it.

It might be serious; but right now, having read most of it, I'm agnostic on the matter.

[Demeter]

10. SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT!!!!!!

Give me a break.


And if this is somebody's idea of a joke, it's a particularly cruel one. Even if I didn't have a daughter of 23 with this condition I would think so.