Lightin’ It Up to Treat Autism

In the “It's funny, because it's true” Category, I was made aware of this. It seems that the book “Recovering Autistic Children”, edited by Stephen M. Edelson, Ph.D. and Bernard Rimland lets us know about “up-to-the-minute information from ARI's acclaimed Defeat Autism Now! (DAN!) Project”. And is complete with information on “new sections including Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatment (HBOT); clinical use of Methyl B12; Specific Carbohydrate Diet; Low-Dose Naltrexone; Chelation; Medical Marijuana to control aggression; and much more!”

Oh man, who is going to say it?

A Walk on Water Indeed

I just stumbled across Kev's very good takedown of an upcoming documentary
"A Walk on Water: Autism Mercury and the Environment".

Kev, is direct, thoughtful, and professional in his written comments. I highly recommend it.

Cool.....But not for the Faint of Heart

Mind Hacks has a link to a dissection of a brain.

Yeah...a little tough to watch at some parts, but very informative if you can hack it, as it were.

Nothing Good to Say

Back in August a 3 year old autistic boy was left in a closet for two days by his foster parents while they went to a family reunion. He died and his foster father burned his body. His foster mother went on TV and cried for the community to help them find him, even though she knew he was dead.

I decided not to blog this at the time because I could not possibly find anything that seemed worth saying. A month later, I still can’t.

In memory of Marcus Fiesel.

43rd Skeptic's Circle

Look...bad logic makes puppies sad. You don't want to make a puppy sad now do you?
Anyway, check out the 43rd Skeptics Circle up at Adventures in Ethics and Science.

Skeptico Nails It on the Head

Skeptico just posted an awesome takedown of an argument which incorrectly tried to claim that their opponents use logical fallacies to justify their claims. It is good to see what logical fallacies don't look like sometimes, and Skep does a great job breaking this apart.

A Listing of Articles Which Do Not Support the Vaccine Etiology of Autism Theory

A reader requested some time ago that I come with a listing of articles that do not support a vaccine etiology of autism. I propose a list here which is either directly refutes such a connection, or challenges the “epidemic of autism” theory which is usually a core assertion of this theory, or I reference articles that while not directly addressing the issues, do provide some support for the first two categories.

I have divided this listing into categories concerning what the articles focus on. The articles may be causal or descriptive epidemiology, or they may be critical analyses of articles or issues already in play. I have provided full references, but not links to these articles. Some of these articles are far better than others in terms of quality and control. I wish to say that a critical review of these articles is just as important as with any other issue.

(note: I have not uniformed the references between APA and medical text formatting. I do not think this should be a problem for any however).



For Descriptive Epidemiology:

1. Bertrand, J., Mars, A., Boyle, C., Bove, F., Yeargin-Allsop, M., & Decoufle, P. (2001). Prevalence of autism in a United States population: the Brick Township, New Jersey, investigation. Pediatrics, 108, 1155-161.

2. Chakrabarti, S., & Fombonne, E. (2001). Pervasive developmental disorders in preschool children. Journal of the American Medical Association, 285,
3093-3099.

3. Chakrabarti, S., Fombonne, E., (2005). Pervasive developmental disorders in preschool children: confirmation of high prevalence. American Journal of
Psychiatry, 162(6), 1133-1141.

4. Fombonne, E. (2002). Prevalence of childhood disintegrative disorder (CDD). Autism 6, 2, 147-155.

5. Fombonne, E. (2003). Epidemiological surveys of autism and other pervasive developmental disorders: an update. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. 33, 365-382.

6. Fombonne, E. (2001). Is there an epidemic of autism? Pediatrics.Vol 107 (2), 411-412.

7. Gernsbacher, M.A., Dawson, M, & Goldsmith, H. H. (2005).Three reasons not to believe in an autism epidemic. Current directions in psychological science, 14 (2), 55-58.

8. Gallo C, Volkmar F. Diagnosis of autism. Trends Evidence-Based
Neuropsychiatry 2003;5(1):23– 8.

9. Honda, H., Shimizu, Y., Imai, M., & Nitto, Y. (2005). Cumulative incidence of childhood autism: a total population study of better accuracy and precision. Developmental Medicine And Child Neurology. 47(1), 10-8.

10. Jick H, Beach KJ, Kaye JA. Incidence of autism over time.Epidemiology. (2006). Epidemiology, 17(1), 120-121.

11. Laidler, J. (2005). US Department of Education data on "autism" are not reliable for tracking autism prevalence. Pediatrics, 116 (1), 120-124.

12. Mandall, D. S., Novak, M. M., Zubritsky, C. D. (2005). Factors associated with age of diagnosis among children with autism spectrum disorders. Pediatrics,Vol 116 (6), 1480-6.

13. Spitzer, R., Siegal, B.(1990). The DSM-III R field trial of pervasive developmental disorders. Journal of American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. 29, 855–862.

14. Tidmarsh, L., Volkmar, F, R. (2003)Diagnosis and epidemiology of autism spectrum disorders. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry. 48, 517-525.

15. Yeargin-Allsopp, M., Rice, C., Karapurka, T., Doernberg, N., Boyle, C., Murphy, C. (2003). Prevalence of autism in a US metropolitan area. Journal of the American Medical Association, 289, 49-89.


For the MMR:

16. Fombonne E. MMR and autistic enterocolitis: a consistent epidemiological failure to find an association. Mol Psychiatry 2003;8:133–4.

17. Honda Shimizu, Y., Rutter, M. (2005). No effect of MMR withdrawal on the incidence of autism: a total population study. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, vol 46 (6), 572-579.

18. Horton, R., (2004). A statement by the editors of the Lancet. Lancet, 363, 820-1

19. Kaye, J. A., del Melero-Montes, M., & Jick, H. (2001). Mumps, measles, and rubella vaccine and the incidence of autism recorded by general practitioners: A time trend analysis. BritishMedical Journal, 322, 460–463.

20. Madsen KM, Hviid A, Vestergaard M, Schendel D, Wohlfahrt J, Thorsen P, and
others. A population-based study of measles, mumps, and rubella vaccination
and autism. New Engl J Med 2002;347:1477–82.

21. Madsen KM. Measles, mumps and rubella vaccination and autism. N Engl J Med
2003;348:951–4.

22. Murch, S., Anthony, A., Casson, D., Malik, M., Berelowitz, M., Dhillon, A., Thomson, P., Valentine, A., Davies, S., & Walker-Smith, J. (2004). Retraction of interpretation, 363, 750.

23. Roberts W, Harford M. Immunization and children at risk for autism. Paediatric
Child Health 2002;7:623–32.

24. Spitzer W. Measles, mumps, and rubella vaccination and autism. N Engl J Med
2003;348:951–4.

25. Stoto MA, Cleary SD, Foster VB . Epidemiologic studies of MMR vaccine and
autism. Washington (DC): Institute of Medicine Immunization Safety Review
Committee; 2001.

26. Taylor B, Miller E, Farrington CP, et al. Autism and measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine; no epidemiological evidence for a causal association. Lancet, 353, 2026-2029.


For Thimerosal:

27. Andrews, N., Miller, E., Grant, A., Stowe, J., Osborne, V., Taylor, B. (2004). Thimerosal exposure in infants and developmental disorders: a retrospective cohort study in the United kingdom does not support a causal association. Pediatrics. 114(3), 584-591.

28.Meadows, M. (2004). IOM report: no link between vaccines and autism. FDA Consumer. 38(5), 38-9.

29. Nelson K, Bauman M. Thimerosal and autism? Pediatrics 2003. 111, 674–679.

30. Parker, S, K., Schwartz, B., Todd, J., Pickering, L, K. (2004). Thimerosal-containing vaccines and autistic spectrum disorder: a critical review of published original data. Pediatrics. 114(3), 793-804.

31. Singh, V, K., Hanson, J. (2006). Assessment of metallothionein and antibodies to metallothionein in normal and autistic children having exposure to vaccine-derived thimerosal. Pediatric Allergy and Immunology. 17, 291–296.

32. Stehr-Green, P., Tull, P., Stellfeld, M., Mortenson, P., Simpson. (2003). Autism and thimerosal-containing vaccines lack of consistent evidence for an association. American Journal of Preventative Medicine. 25(2), 101-106.

33. Verstraeten T, Davis RL, DeStefano F, et al. Safety of thimerosal-containing vaccines: a two-phased study of computerized health maintenance organization databases. Pediatrics.2003; 112 :1039 –1048

34. Vertraeten, T. (2004). Thimerosal, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and GlaxoSmithKline. Pediatrics. 113(2), 932.