Autism Hype

ElectricFetus

ElectricFetus

Sanity going, going, gone
Valued Senior Member
Read this:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/04/02/mccarthy.autsimtreatment/index.html
I've been noticing lots of articles like this one with spring up lately about how autims is on the raise, how it may be cause by vaccines and about non-scientifically proven techniques from treatment and "recovery"

All of this is complete opposite to what most scientific studies have found which is autism is not on the raise (it just diagnostics have improved), its not cause by vaccines, it usually 90% of the time genetic and there is no cure or recovery avenue for it that has been proven to work statistically. So what gives are parents and the media getting all hype up about nothing?
 
ElectricFetus said:
Read this:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/04/02/mccarthy.autsimtreatment/index.html
I've been noticing lots of articles like this one with spring up lately about how autims is on the raise, how it may be cause by vaccines and about non-scientifically proven techniques from treatment and "recovery"

All of this is complete opposite to what most scientific studies have found which is autism is not on the raise (it just diagnostics have improved), its not cause by vaccines, it usually 90% of the time genetic and there is no cure or recovery avenue for it that has been proven to work statistically. So what gives are parents and the media getting all hype up about nothing?
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yes perants are getting all worked up over nothing, there is more than just plain ole autism on the autism spectrum!
 
lucifers angel said:
yes perants are getting all worked up over nothing, there is more than just plain ole autism on the autism spectrum!
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I think they believe all autism spectrum disorders are cause by immunizations. Their argument is this disorder are on the raise (against most evidence) and are cause by the profiting vaccine market which are over vaccinating our kids with horrible "chemicals" against disease no one has ever hear of any more (because vaccines nearly wipe those disease out in 1st world countries) we should not vaccinate our kids, feed then holistic medicines and the world will be better off (agreed, far more children and adults will die, be blinded or sterilized by the MMR disease and thus have less children in the future adding less mouths to the human plague)
 
There is evidence that if autism is detected in an infant (which, I must say, I don't know how you could do that...), treatment at that point can significantly improve the childs chances of being closer to "normal" when they grow up. .
 
15ofthe19 said:
There is evidence that if autism is detected in an infant (which, I must say, I don't know how you could do that...), treatment at that point can significantly improve the childs chances of being closer to "normal" when they grow up. .
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How do they treat a infant for autism?
 
ElectricFetus said:
Read this:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/04/02/mccarthy.autsimtreatment/index.html
I've been noticing lots of articles like this one with spring up lately about how autims is on the raise, how it may be cause by vaccines and about non-scientifically proven techniques from treatment and "recovery"

All of this is complete opposite to what most scientific studies have found which is autism is not on the raise (it just diagnostics have improved), its not cause by vaccines, it usually 90% of the time genetic and there is no cure or recovery avenue for it that has been proven to work statistically. So what gives are parents and the media getting all hype up about nothing?
Click to expand...

I think they are just presenting both sides of the argument. Some people think vaccines are to blame, or at least partially to blame. Other people think that some measure of normality is possible, an awakening from fully autistic to functional, which is true.
 
spidergoat said:
I think they are just presenting both sides of the argument. Some people think vaccines are to blame, or at least partially to blame. Other people think that some measure of normality is possible, an awakening from fully autistic to functional, which is true.
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Maybe some autistics can be brought to some level o self-functionality but I believe most of them are well... fucked. This is not "Rain man" this is more like wearing diapers can't walk or talk (I'm not even going to count aspingers as most aspingers can live just fine on their own, stop labeling them as "diseased")
 
ElectricFetus said:
... its not cause by vaccines...
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No, of course not. I'm pretty sure it's the decline of piracy at sea that's lead to the rise in autism. Think about it - autism seems to have increased around the same time that pirates stopped pillaging ships on a large scale. I hope you aren’t nieve enough to think that’s just a coincidence!
 
Nasor said:
No, of course not. I'm pretty sure it's the decline of piracy at sea that's lead to the rise in autism. Think about it - autism seems to have increased around the same time that pirates stopped pillaging ships on a large scale. I hope you aren’t nieve enough to think that’s just a coincidence!
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Exactly, its not a coincidence, its a fallacy of causality
 
spidergoat said:
I think they are just presenting both sides of the argument. Some people think vaccines are to blame, or at least partially to blame.
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The idea that the news needs to "present both sides of the story" or "give a balanced report" is part of what's making the news media more and more useless. If a few vocal nuts think something but can't present any actual vidence to back up their opinion, while virtually every educated expert in the world thinks something else and can provide a mountain of evidence to back up their opinion, why should the media waste everyone's time "presenting both sides"?
 
spidergoat said:
I know what you're saying, but the science is not so conclusive yet.
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The science is pretty conclusive that vaccination doesn't cause autism, since many studies have shown that kids who are vaccinated aren't any more likely to get autism than kids who aren't, that autism rates don't go down in areas where vaccination rates go down, and that autism rates don't go up in areas where vaccination increases.
 
The people who perpetuate that vaccination crap nonsense ought to be ashamed of themselves.
 
On that note though, I think they can be excused somewhat. I know a guy with whom I used to work who has a son with autism. We were talking about autism and whatnot and I was saying "isn't it unproven that vaccines cause autism?" And he's like "I believe it probably does." I didn't argue with him because I figured he probably knows more about autism than I do, since his son is autistic. But I haven't heard anything about that connection. It was probably his willingness to believe that the problem is caused by a variable which can be controlled.
 
francois said:
On that note though, I think they can be excused somewhat. I know a guy with whom I used to work who has a son with autism. We were talking about autism and whatnot and I was saying "isn't it unproven that vaccines cause autism?" And he's like "I believe it probably does." I didn't argue with him because I figured he probably knows more about autism than I do, since his son is autistic. But I haven't heard anything about that connection. It was probably his willingness to believe that the problem is caused by a variable which can be controlled.
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I think a lot of parents want something they can blame, something they can sue.
 
It just seems that a few years ago every kid was ADD/ADHD and now every other kid has autism. I know they are better at diagnosing it, but I think a lot of parents excuse their child's bad behavior with "He can't help it, he has ADD/ADHD/autism" Kinda like my mom always used to say about my brother "oh, he just needs a nap"
Just cuz a parent says their kid has it, doesn't mean they have been diagnosed.
 
I've read once that autism might to some degree be connected to what type of parents the child has - if both mother and father are technical types, the chances that their child will be autistic, are greater.


SIMON BARON-COHEN
Psychologist, Autism Research Centre, Cambridge University; Author, The Essential Difference

...
In my chosen field of autism, I believe that the cause will turn out to be assortative mating of two hyper-systemizers. I believe this because we already have 3 pieces of the jig-saw: (1) that fathers of children with autism are more likely to work in the field of engineering (compared to fathers of children without autism); (2) that grandfathers of children with autism—on both sides of the family—were also more likely to work in the field of engineering (compared to grandfathers of children without autism); and (3) that both mothers and fathers of children with autism are super-fast at the embedded figures test, a task requiring analysis of patterns and rules. (Note that engineering is a chosen example because it involves strong systemizing. But other related scientific and technical fields [such as math or physics] would have been equally good examples to study).

We have had these three pieces of the jigsaw since 1997, published in the scientific literature. They do not yet prove the assortative mating theory. They simply point to it being highly likely. Direct tests of the theory are still needed. I will be the first to give up this idea if it is proven wrong, since I'm not in the business of holding onto wrong ideas. But I won't give up the idea simply because it will be unpopular to certain groups (such as those who want to believe that the cause of autism is purely environmental). I will hold onto the idea until it has been properly tested. Popperian science is about being able to let go of an idea when the evidence goes against it, but it is also about being able to hold onto an idea until the evidence has been collected, if you have enough reasons to believe it might be true.

The causes of autism are likely to be complex, including at the very least multiple genes interacting with environmental factors, but the assortative mating theory may describe some contributing factors.

http://www.edge.org/q2005/q05_5.html#baroncohen
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greenberg said:
I've read once that autism might to some degree be connected to what type of parents the child has - if both mother and father are technical types, the chances that their child will be autistic, are greater.
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Heaven forbid that the parents them selfs are the cause!, no it must be something else, something those dam doctors and cooperations did!
 
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