tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33052404.post8948945307009574871..comments2024-02-13T21:31:57.980-04:00Comments on Facing Autism in New Brunswick: Are All Epidemiological Autism Studies Flawed? Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05838571980003579163noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33052404.post-39331918008153798152012-12-06T07:31:35.723-04:002012-12-06T07:31:35.723-04:00Originally, 'autism', was a descriptive la...Originally, 'autism', was a descriptive label for the withdrawn behaviour seen in schizophrenia. Kanner originally used it descriptively as well, and it was only after seeing several children with similar symptoms that he began to suspect he might be looking at the same disorder in each of the children concerned.<br /><br />Today a 'diagnosis' of autism is still based solely on behavioural characteristics and everyone whose behavioural characteristics meet the criteria for autism *and* whose symptoms have no known cause, qualifies for this 'diagnosis'. <br /><br />I've put diagnosis in quotes because a diagnosis of autism is simply matching behavioural characteristics, not giving any indication of what causes those characteristics. A diagnosis couched in terms as vague as autism is, is bound to experience 'diagnosis drift', and to start to include those who would have been considered within the normal range 70, 50 or even 30 years ago.<br /><br />A far more likely explanation for autism is that the triad of behavioural characteristics can be caused by lots of different medical conditions; in their 1992 book "The biology of the autistic syndromes" Mary Coleman and Christopher Gillberg list many different medical disorders documented as associated with autism. They don't know, of course, whether the autistic characteristics are caused by those other medical disorders, but it's a pretty safe bet some of them are responsible.<br /><br />So it's quite possible that the so-called autism 'epidemic' might have been caused by several factors including broadening the diagnostic criteria - in practice if not in theory, increased awareness, and increased cultural expectations of conformity, as well as medical problems that are often not even looked at after a diagnosis of autism - because all symptoms are widely attributed to some hypothetical single condition we call 'autism'.<br /><br />Sue Gerrardnoreply@blogger.com