Oh joy. Thomas Sowell jumps on the anti-autism bandwagon.

[KamaAina]

First it was the Savage Weiner calling autism "a fraud, a racket" and implying that kids had autism because "there's no father around to tell them what to do".

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=3639262&mesg_id=3639262

Now Thomas Sowell chimes in. Actually, the amazing thing here is that anybody still publishes that guy. :eyes:

http://www.norwichbulletin.com/opinions/columnists/x1191776102/THOMAS-SOWELL-Rush-to-diagnose-autism-causes-more-harm-than-good

My own awareness of how easy it is to make false diagnoses of autism grew out of experiences with a group of parents of late-talking children I formed back in 1993. A number of those children were diagnosed as autistic. But the passing years have shown most of the diagnoses to have been false, as most of these children have not only begun talking but have developed socially....

Yet, if I had concocted some half-baked method of diagnosing and treating these children, I could now claim a high rate of success in "curing" autism, based on case studies. Perhaps my success rate would be as high as that claimed by various programs being touted in the media.

What Camarata has encountered is something that I encountered in my smaller group — parents who have been told to allow their child to be diagnosed as autistic, in order to become eligible for government money that is available, and can be used for speech therapy or whatever other treatment the child might need.

How much this may have contributed to the soaring statistics on the number of children diagnosed as autistic is something nobody knows. Another factor is a growing practice of referring to children as being on "the autistic spectrum." A child may not actually be autistic but have a number of characteristics common among autistic children. The problem with this is that lots of children have characteristics common among autistic children.

Wait a minute. This mook is a senior fellow at Stanford, yet he seems to be blissfully unaware that about half of people with autism have speech, while half are nonverbal. Not only that, he seems to deny or belittle the existence of closely related conditions such as Asperger's. Un-flippin'-believable. :eyes:

And notice, once again, that in Right-Wing Hate World, those damnable special-needs parents are, once again, only in it for the money. Never mind that many parents have mortgaged their homes to pay for intensive applied behavior analysis therapy -- but that's another rant, for another time.

I wonder what we did to get to the top of the right-wing hit list this week? The irony is that I know of at least two people with autism who are themselves dedicated right-wingers. How do you suppose they feel right about now?

[muntrv]

1. Thomas Sowell, like other reich wingers, are manure for brains.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

If this is their message du jour...

Then the repukes are far more broken as people and a movement than even we know.

Now, they are taking their talking points from...Michael Savage. What else can be said about them?

[DS1]

2. Autism is a terrible thing

and I send my best to the families who have autistic children.

[AndyTiedye]

3. I Bet Sowell and Weiner Were Schoolyard Bullies When They Were Kids

Of course, we KNOW Bush** was, it's in his friggin college yearbook!


Schoolyard bullies grow up to be Repiglickins. Correction. They don't actually grow up at all.
Now they are bullying autistic kids and their parents.

[bluestateguy]

4. And his medical degree is in....?

nt

[KamaAina]

5. Economics.

What? You didn't know economics was a medical specialty? :sarcasm:

[Deja Q]

14. a box of Cracker Jacks?

[MannyGoldstein]

6. Weiner Is Insane, But Sowell Absolutely Has A Good Point

I'm not a defender of Sowell in general. But he's absolutely correct about "autistic spectrum mania".

Unlike Weiner, he's not denying that there is true Autism. There is such a disease, and it's awful, awful.

However, there is a recent fad in Psychology of classifying any kid who has any of the characteristics of an autism victim as being part of an supposed "autism spectrum". A kid has problems making friends? He's labeled as being "on the autism spectrum". That's simply nuts - it's like saying that a chest cold is part of the "lung cancer spectrum". Just because there are some common characteristics does not mean that they are related, or will respond to the same treatments.

At this point, there is zero scientific evidence that an "autism spectrum" exists. There are actually pretty straightforward ways to test whether this is a spectrum, but psychologists have continually fled from these analyses.

My sister was a research psychologist, but had to leave the field a few years ago because she was so disturbed by the lack of scientific rigor she found. She actually read one of Sowell's books on late-speaking kids, expecting it to be utter nonsense (like his economics and politics). Instead, she found that it was probably the best work on the subject she'd seen.

[KamaAina]

7. The autism spectrum includes, at a minimum, autism, Asperger's and PDD-NOS

all of which have their own entries in DMS-IV.

I will be vacating the cubicle in a minute or two, but I would like to know what ways there are to define something as a "spectrum".

[MannyGoldstein]

8. Zero Evidence That Those Are Linked To One Another

They only have characteristics in common. The DSM-IV just says they're linked.

Cluster analysis is one straightforward way to show a spectrum vs. disparate conditions.

[baldguy]

9. You could say the same thing about cancer.

But it doesn't follow that cancer is a myth.

[MannyGoldstein]

11. I Don't Understand What You're Saying - Please Explain n/t

[kcather]

25. Cancer has many disparate symptoms

prognoses, treatments and causes. It's all cancer.

The autism spectrum disorders are now classified as "pervasive developmental disorders -- all have a core set of commonalities: communications deficits, perseverative or repetitive behaviors and social skills difficulties. There are many comorbidities, as this is a neurological condition. Sensory and motor deficits and abnormalities are extremely common.

[MannyGoldstein]

33. Should We Treat Lung, Prostate, And Thyroid Cancers The Same Way?

Obviously no, because they are different. They have some things in common - out-of-control cell proliferation and likelihood of bad outcomes - but they are different diseases, treated differently.

The better analogy really would be among diseases that share common symptoms, say, asthma, pneumonia, emphysema, and lung cancer. Should we proclaim all of these to be part of a "lung cancer spectrum", and use chemotherapy on all? Of course not. But this is what we do when we lump kids with issues into some sort of spectrum. We really have no idea if it's a spectrum of a single underlying cause. All we know is that we have kids with issues.

[kcather]

35. the same issues

Communications deficits, social skills problems, and repetetive behaviors. Also severe sensory and motor difficulties.

[Deja Q]

15. Try going to an Autistic Spectrum support group...

Or talking with some of the doctors and psychiatrists that have empirical experience in the field.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

17. Anecdotal evidence is of very limited value.

So, while attending a support group may lead to you feeling as though you have a better understanding of autism, it won't provide reliable evidence.

Talking to specialists may do so, but because they're likely to have read or conducted studies, not because they have personal experience.

[kcather]

26. On the contrary

You would find out what it is actually like to raise, treat and live with a sufferer of a PDD. On paper it's easy to sneer. To be skeptical. However, to be in a room full of people all going through the same thing, you would actually learn something.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

18. Anecdotal evidence is of very limited value.

So, while attending a support group may lead to you feeling as though you have a better understanding of autism, it won't provide reliable evidence.

Talking to specialists may do so, but because they're likely to have read or conducted studies, not because they have personal experience.

[kcather]

27. an expert

No. An expert may have treated a very large number of children with PDDs. Or he may have spent a number of hours a week with 50-100 sufferers of a PDD.

[MannyGoldstein]

19. And What Would That Show?

I'm sure that these are helpful - in the end, treating symptoms is the only thing that actually works, and people on the alleged spectrum do have certain commons symptoms.

[kcather]

28. expertise

There are plenty of studies documenting the existence of Pervasive Developmental Disorders. There is even scientific evidence of some medications that palliate the worst of the symptoms. Before that happened, a psychiatrist -- or a whole bunch of them -- routinely prescribed atypical antipsychotics like Risperdal, in lower dosages -- to children on the autism spectrum, and those medications allowed these children to function in the community and get out into the world and have experiences that otherwise would be denied them. What they had was experience, what some would call "anecdotal experience" since until recently there were no studies that verified their perception that atypical antipsychotics like Risperdal, Abilify or Geodon are useful in reducing some of the aggressive, irritable, repetetive behaviors of the PDDs.

[MannyGoldstein]

32. Nobody Disagrees That There Are Pervasive Developmental Disorders

There are definitely kids with issues.

The disagreement is that they are on a "spectrum of autism". All that is really known is that there are kids who have various issues, and that certain treatments (meds in particular) treat some of those issues. Taking the next step and saying that these issues are caused by a common underlying driver (i.e., some degree of a thing called autism) is unwarranted, and might well be misleading.

[kcather]

34. PDD

Says who?

[kcather]

24. The Einstein Syndrome

There may be a lack of academic rigor. Outcome studies would be nice -- especially in addiction and sex offender treatments.

But children on the autism spectrum are labelled that way because they are pervasively handicapped everywhere they go.

These children used to be diagnosed as having "minimal brain dysfunction," or other disorders. They usually ended up in institutions.

[KT2000]

10. A new apologist industry

seems to be emerging. These people will be rewarded by industries fearing liability - what do you want to bet. Prestigious universities take a lot of money for corporate america and there is not a shortage of academics willing to sell their credentials for the money and their emotional satisfaction - their egos are stroked as well.

There is a documentary that shows on the Doc Channel about the "refrigerator moms" who were blamed for their children's autism. Their lives were destroyed by ignorant academics wishing to secure power in the field - a woman's life was nothing to them, nor was the child's.

Rather than face the fact that the carefully laid loopholes of public health have created a generation of brain damaged children, these highly paid monsters will slander parents.

Please note - this is obviously an emerging PR campaign. The research is probably getting too close to some truth. Medical/legal organizations are already in place to fight any connection to commercial products, as in pesticides/herbicides that damage DNA and affect synapses. They have successfully fought off connections for other connections to health ills.

[hunter]

13. The pesticide link seems very likely to me.

Those work by screwing up the nervous systems of insects, and it's not a big stretch to think they might be screwing up the brain development of certain susceptible children.

Or it could be something like high fructose corn syrup.

I think they've see something on their radar and are setting up defenses. Blaming the victims or denying there is a problem are quite common defenses.

[kcather]

30. I have two children with PDDs and this is what I think

My children both do have kidney defects, in addition to PDDs, but I think this is in a way a coincidence.

I was 36 years old when I gave birth to my youngest, and their father was 12 years older than that. I don't think that the human animal is designed to give birth that late. So that didn't help.

The other problem is that we are, at bottom, animals. And we evolved to solve a very limited set of problems. We function best in a socially stable group of about 150 individuals, with deadlines mostly measured in hours, days or seasons. There is social stablity to the extent that people knew each others grandparents, there is extended family nearby, and roles are relatively fixed and stable. That is, the baker was the baker. He was an essential part of the community. Or, the best hunter was the best hunter. Everyone had a role to play in the community. You didn't have to constantly relearn who everyone was socially because everyone mostly lived and died in the same community. I believe that our immune systems became accustomed to the local bacteriological flora and fauna.

I'm not idealizing this time: Fifty percent of all children would be dead before they were five years old, women died in childbirth regularly, and people died young of things we would consider preventable.

Now we are so mobile that it is not unusual for children to move to where they don't know anyone. Deadlines are measured in seconds and hours. There is a constant barrage of information. I don't think that our most vulnerable have brains that are designed to do this. What is unique about the PDDs is that children can't filter out the significant from the insignificant, in a sensory, communicative, or emotional sense. They are so overwhelmed by the barrage of stimulus that it has affected their neurological development.

Our children are like this from birth. The evidence shows there is a genetic component. But I think that the way that our society functions makes things worse.

[kcather]

29. the refrigerator moms

Yes, the medical industry has traditionally been very hostile to mothers. They used to say that children with asthma had "overprotective mothers," as if this caused the asthma. It couldnt' be that mothers with asthmatic children -- before rescue medications like albuterol or palliative medications like Singulair or Pulmicort that reduced symptoms in the long-term -- were vigilant because otherwise their children would die. But medical professionals are hostile to maternal emotion (they're the ones who steered mothers away from breastfeeding!) and maternal anxiety because many of them are half-dead inside in order to cope.

Mothers who were distant from their children who had pervasive developmental disorders -- I mean physically distant -- probably learned to respect their childrens' boundaries.

[Domitan]

12. Part of my job description involves screening and helping with diagnosing PDD

I work in a clinic where a team of us meet with clients and their families for a) screenings where kids who obviously do not have PDD are referred to more appropriate services and b) diagnostic work to determine if the child fits the diagnosis of PDD.

A few years ago, we had the diagnostic clinic without the screening clinic. Very long waiting list!!! Over 2 years, we found that only 30 to 40 percent of our clients actually fit the diagnosis of PDD. Those who did not meet the criteria for PDD actually had ADD plus language disorder/learning disorder OR social anxiety OR straightforward intellectual delays, etc. Just because a child exhibits some "odd behaviours" or has problems making friends or has problems with transitions does not automatically mean the child has PDD.

Ever since we had the screening clinic to redirect those who obviously do not have PDD, the percentage of children who actually had PDD based on the diagnostic clinic increased to closer to 50 percent...but still indicates that PDD has been overdiagnosed by many other professionals.

From my experience, those who tend to overdiagnose are the family doctors or psychiatrists who are not well-versed in PDD. The doctor on my clinical team believes that many doctors tend to overdiagnose children (who have social problems) as having PDD-NOS...meaning that they're not sure what the child actually has as he/she does not fit the criteria for full Autism...so just throws in the PDD-NOS diagnosis (which, in my opinion, is a cop-out diagnosis in many cases...not all).

Don't forget that many parents actually want the diagnosis of PDD in order to preserve funding for school services. Very understandable...but if the child actually does not have PDD and is not receiving the proper services for what he/she actually needs...more potential suffering in the long run.

[Deja Q]

16. Well said, thank you.

:thumbsup:

:yourock:

[salin]

20. great post!

[kcather]

31. PDD diagnosis

Doesn't get the child the services in school if the child isn't handicapped to the extent that it affects their ability to receive a free, appropriate public education. The school systems are extremely pragmatic in their approach. If a child is not failing, all too often he will get nothing until he IS failing, regardless of the diagnosis.

Sometimes, they go out of their way to deny a child services even if they are failing. My firstborn had severe fine motor problems. The teacher had to tape the paper to the desk in third grade. He couldn't tie his shoes. But you had to have cerebral palsy in our old school district to qualify for occupational therapy, and so writing became a real problem for my son and it was a pervasive problem for his whole school career.

I couldn't afford to pay for it myself, because I was doing triage. My youngest needed the OT because he was severely affected (couldn't swallow solid food at three). My older one got social skills therapy -- which I have since decided, they need to do outcome studies on. It didn't help, and of course, if he could learn appropriate social behavior from modelling he already would have.

[mmonk]

21. It's all about the money. Corporations do not like anti-discrimination

laws and corporations want subsidies, tax breaks, money with no regulations. Any money going to the population that needs help in their minds is bad. Thus parents become villians in taking their money away. Judges now rule autistic and other disabled persons can't sue government employers for monetary damage. The years of legislative success are going to be turned away and the provisions useless. Many of us worked for those legislative successes. What else can we say? The climate of this sick country that works only for powerful makes the future less friendly for our family members.

[fla nocount]

22. Bootlicking the Pharm's for research money, the mercury connection. n/t

[kcather]

23. Thomas Sowell has a disabled child

Thomas Sowell wrote a book called The Einstein Syndrome. In it he basically engages in denial and asserts that there ain't nothing wrong with his kid dagblammit, and then indulges in a lot of know-nothing-ism, in order to try to incite other parents to fail to seek the appropriate interventions for their own children.

Of course he has an axe to grind now. He failed his child then, and he certainly doesn't want to admit it.

[earth mom]

36. This is ominous people. Can you imagine the damage these bastards can do to these innocent kids

and their families by getting the hateful rethuglican party to falsly believe that Autism isn't real?!

Faux news will no doubt jump on this bandwagon and they will instigate and perpetuate hate towards these kids and their families!

Can these fucking bastards be any more fucking evil?! :wtf:

It reminds me of the whackjob nutcases who say the Holocaust never happened!

God Damn those fuckers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :grr: