Autism
Autism is a pervasive developmental disorder, meaning that it affects how a child
functions in several areas, including speech, social skills and behavior. Children who
have problems in these areas are sometimes said to have an autistic spectrum disorder
because the severity of symptoms varies greatly.
Autism affects about 2 to 6 children per 1,000 in the U.S. The number of affected
children appears to be rising. The rates of autism are at least four times higher than 30
years ago. The causes of this apparent increase are not known. Some have suggested that
improved awareness and changes in how autism is diagnosed may explain much if not all
of the increase. (Personally, your instructor thinks that is bull. Everyone I know can tell
you that something is clearly wrong with an autistic child, I see lots of such kids in
schools today, and I knew of no such cases when I was in school eons ago! I knew of
many mentally retarded kids, but no autistic kids.)
Who Is at Risk?
Autism occurs in all racial, social and educational groups. Boys are 3 to 4 times as likely
as girls to be affected. Siblings of an affected child may be at increased risk of autism,
though the risk appears fairly low (2 to 8 percent).
Causes of Autism
While the causes of autism are poorly understood, scientists do know that autism is not
caused by poor parenting or other social factors. It is a biological disorder that appears to
be associated with subtle developmental abnormalities in specific structures or functions
in the brain. Studies suggest that in most cases, multiple genes contribute to the disorder.
Researchers have identified about 10 genes that appear to play a role in autism. These
genes appear only to contribute to autism. They may not cause the disorder.
Questions about Prenatal Ultrasound and the Alarming
Increase in Autism
by Caroline Rodgers © 2006 Midwifery Today, Inc.
In May 2006, figures from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) confirmed what too many
parents and educators already knew: The incidence of autism is high, making it an "urgent public
health issue," according to Dr. Jose Cordero, director of the CDC's National Center on Birth
Defects and Developmental Disabilities. Only 12 years ago autism spectrum disorder (ASD) was
so rare that it occurred in just one in 10,000 births.(1) Today ASD, which is characterized by a
range of learning and social impairments, now occurs in one in 166 children (2)—with no sign of
leveling off.
The steep increase in autism goes beyond the US: It is a global phenomenon, occurring in
industrialized nations around the world. In the UK, teachers report one in 86 primary school
children has special needs related to ASD.(3)
The cause of autism has been pinned on everything from "emotionally remote" mothers (since
discredited) to vaccines, genetics, immunological disorders, environmental toxins and maternal
infections. Today most researchers theorize that autism is caused by a complex interplay of
genetics and environmental triggers. The theory that a very pervasive medical procedure may
cause it needs to be looked into.
Geneticists are trying to crack the DNA mysteries behind ASD. Recently researchers linked two
mutations of the same X chromosome gene to autism in two unrelated families, although they do
not yet understand at what stage these genes were damaged. Because sibling and twin studies
show a higher prevalence of autism among children in families with one autistic child, geneticists
expected to find inherited factors, but no clear explanation indicates that ASD is inherited.
If prenatal ultrasound is responsible for some cases of autism, it stands to reason that if one twin
were autistic, the other would have a high probability of being affected, since both would have
been exposed to ultrasound at the same time. In both identical and fraternal twins, one twin could
be more severely affected than the other if he or she happened to take the brunt of the heat or
sound waves. Autism strikes males between three to five times more often than females. It is
well known that twins receive more ultrasounds than single births. Yet, there must be some other
factors, because if ultrasounds were the only factor, girls would have the same risk as boys.
Vaccine and Thimerosal Controversy
The cause of autism has remained so elusive to researchers that many autism societies use a
puzzle piece as part of their logos. Particularly confounding is the fact that ASD plagues the
children of high-income, well-educated families who have the best obstetrical care money can
buy. Why would women who took their prenatal vitamins, observed healthy diets, refrained from
smoking or drinking and attended all regularly scheduled prenatal visits bear children with
profound neurologically based problems?
Some believe that childhood vaccines, at first available only to those who could afford them,
cause autism. Many vaccines contained thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative, which was
thought to have a cumulative neurotoxic effect on children, especially as the number of childhood
vaccines increased during the same period of years that the prevalence of autism increased.
However, after an exhaustive review in 1999, the FDA found no evidence of harm in the use of
thimerosal in childhood vaccines.(32)
Despite those findings, that same year the FDA, NIH, CDC, Health Resources and Services
Administration (HRSA) and American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) together urged vaccine
manufacturers to reduce or eliminate thimerosal in childhood vaccines.(33) Pharmaceutical
companies complied, and ultimately reduced the infant thimerosal exposure by 98%.(34)
Interestingly, not only did autism rates fail to decrease, they continued to increase. ASD
increases are between 10 to 17 percent every year, according to the Autism Society of America
(35), indicating that thimerosal is not to blame.
There is another concern in the vaccine-autism controversy. Many people believed that a
correlation existed between the triple vaccine MMR (mumps, measles and rubella) and ASD.
However, a large, retrospective epidemiological study of more than 30,000 children in Japan
between 1988 and 1996 found that the autism rate continued to climb after the vaccine was
withdrawn.(36) Those results were no different than the outcome of a 1999 study published in
The Lancet, that showed no corresponding jump in autism in the UK after the introduction of the
MMR vaccine or a 2001 study published in JAMA examining California autism and MMR
vaccination rates. While concerns about vaccines and mercury exposure should not be
dismissed, evidence to date does not implicate either one as a major factor in the explosion of
ASD cases.
Global Autism Epidemic
Statistics on the increase of autism worldwide among industrialized nations show that it has
emerged in just the last few decades across vastly different environments and cultures. What do
countries and regions with climates, diets and exposure to known toxins as disparate as the US,
Japan, Scandinavia, Australia, India and the UK have in common? No common factor in the
water, air, local pesticides, diet or even building materials and clothing can explain the
emergence and relentless increase in this serious, life-long neurodevelopmental disorder.
What all industrial countries do have in common is the quiet yet pervasive change in obstetrical
care: All of them use routine prenatal ultrasound on pregnant women.
In countries with nationalized healthcare, where virtually all pregnant women are exposed to
ultrasound, the autism rates are even higher than in the US, where due to disparities in income
and health insurance, some 30 percent of pregnant women do not yet undergo ultrasound
scanning. Clearly, ultrasound should be looked into.
Do symptoms of autism change over time?
For many children, autism symptoms improve with treatment and with age. Some
children with autism grow up to lead normal or near-normal lives. During adolescence,
some children with autism may become depressed or experience behavioral problems.
For reasons that are still unclear, about 20 to 30 percent of children with autism develop
epilepsy by the time they reach adulthood.
How is autism treated?
There is no cure for autism. Therapies and behavioral interventions are designed to
remedy specific symptoms and can bring about substantial improvement. Most
professionals agree that the earlier the intervention, the better.
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Educational/behavioral interventions: Therapists use highly structured and
intensive skill-oriented training sessions to help children develop social and
language skills. Family counseling for the parents and siblings of children with
autism often helps families cope with the particular challenges of living with an
autistic child.
Medications: Doctors often prescribe an antidepressant medication to handle
symptoms of anxiety, depression, or obsessive-compulsive disorder. Antipsychotic medications are used to treat severe behavioral problems. Seizures can
be treated with one or more of the anticonvulsant drugs. Stimulant drugs, such as
those used for children with attention deficit disorder (ADD), are sometimes used
effectively to help decrease impulsivity and hyperactivity.
Other therapies: There are a number of controversial therapies or interventions
available for autistic children, but few, if any, are supported by scientific studies.
Parents should use caution before adopting any of these treatments.
What are some common signs of autism?
There are three distinctive behaviors that characterize autism. Autistic children have
difficulties with social interaction, problems with verbal and nonverbal communication,
and repetitive behaviors or narrow, obsessive interests. These behaviors can range in
impact from mild to disabling.
The hallmark feature of autism is impaired social interaction. As early as infancy, a baby
with autism may be unresponsive to people or focus intently on one item to the exclusion
of others for long periods of time. A child with autism may appear to develop normally
and then withdraw and become indifferent to social engagement.
Children with autism may fail to respond to their name and often avoid eye contact with
other people. They have difficulty interpreting what others are thinking or feeling
because they can’t understand social cues, such as tone of voice or facial expressions, and
don’t watch other people’s faces for clues about appropriate behavior. They lack
empathy.
Many children with autism engage in repetitive movements, rocking and twirling, or in
self-abusive behavior such as biting or head-banging. They also tend to start speaking
later than other children and may refer to themselves by name instead of “I”. Children
with autism don’t know how to play with other children. Some have a narrow range of
topics, with little regard for the interests of the person to whom they are speaking. Many
children with autism have a reduced sensitivity to pain, but are abnormally sensitive to
sound, touch, or other sensory stimulation. These unusual reactions may contribute to
behavioral symptoms such as a resistance to being cuddled or hugged.
Children with autism appear to have a higher than normal risk for certain co-existing
conditions, including fragile X syndrome (which causes mental retardation), tuberous
sclerosis (in which tumors grow on the brain), epileptic seizures, Tourette syndrome,
learning disabilities, and attention deficit disorder.