Blast from the Past Post: MESSAGE BOARD BUZZ. Autism Speaks Selects Eric London?

Managing Editor's Note:  I wrote this post on August 17, 2007 (before we launched AoA) about Eric London and Autism Speaks. And now he's joining his colleagues at ASF. Mazel Tov and mind the Sleestaks. My condolences to the Jackson family. Kim

Scenario A) Mrs. Smith? My name is Michael Jackson. Oh, that's so lovely. Thank you! Yes, I'm so glad you enjoyed my songs in the 1980's. Well, you see, the thing is, speaking of "Beat It" I'm soooooo excited to tell you that I will be Johnny's cubby scout leader this year, and our first trip is to Neverland Ranch to study the night time habits of the habitual bed sharer!

(So we at Rescue Post ask, are you nervous, Mrs. Smith? Oops! Careful not to pull Johnny's arm out of its socket as you yank him away from Mr. Jackson and drag him home to safety!)

Scenario B) "Like, um, hi! I'm, um, Lindsay Lohan. Welcome to the DARE 2007 Just Say No (sniff, sniff, anyone got a tissue?) conference."

(Feeling confident, Mom and Dad? You'd better hide your twenty dollar bills.....)  Now try this one on for size:

Scenario C) Eric London, psychiatrist and founder of NAAR, is about to be put in charge of alternative treatment research for Autism Speaks. 

Sorry, but that one just might be true.

Rescue Post has heard through the message boards that AUTISM SPEAKS may be about to appoint its own Mr. Jackson/Miss Lohan to help our autistic kids.  Word is that Dr. Eric London, a psychiatrist, and founder of NAAR, is about to become the fox in charge of the Autism Speaks "alternative/environmental treatments" hen house. 

AS, ARE YOU KIDDING US?  Take a look at what Eric London considers biomedical research here.

1)  Eric London's NAAR gave Mr. Roy Grinker $120,000 to write a book telling the world there is no autism epidemic. Mr. Grinker provides links to several of the neurodiversity blogs, some of which devote 99% of their time to ridiculing biomedical theories and denigrating medical treatments for autism.

From a review of his book: "Unstrange Minds: Remapping the World of Autism," by George Washington University anthropologist Roy Richard Grinker, critically questions whether there truly is an autism epidemic or, perhaps, whether it is simply better recognition of an issue that has long been with us but not widely noticed. Could the decided rise in autism cases that parents, schoolteachers, and child health professionals are seeing in recent years be the unintended consequence of changing clinical definitions, policy changes, and heightened awareness among those who spend significant time with children?

2)  Bernard Rimland, founder of both the Autism Society of America and the Autism Research Institute, the pioneer of biomedical autism treatment wrote this about Mr. London back in 2000:

“Garbage science!” That is how psychiatrist Eric London characterized what he had just heard from several fellow parents of autistic children. Some of the parents were also MDs or professionals in other fields. “If you presented your views to a journal-reading club at a medical school,” Dr. London continued, “they would be thrown out the door.”

See the full ARI letter HERE.

3) Autism Speaks was quoted in The Boston Globe just days ago.

"Until recently, about 90 percent of autism research has focused on genetics, and only perhaps 10 percent on environmental factors, said Dr. Gary Goldstein, chairman of the scientific board of Autism Speaks, a national research and advocacy group. In the coming years, he expects the ratio to be 1 to 1."

Did Eric London have anything to do with the 10%? No, that's not what NAAR funded. Autism Speaks, you give us Eric London, a man who does not seem to believe autism is medically treatable, to spearhead the research that could make or break our kids' lives?  Tell us, was your man Eric Hollander too busy making sure PROZAC becomes the de rigeur treatment for autism so he can make his fortune? 

Eric Hollander is another bigwig with AS and owns the orphan patent for the generic of Prozac. He is also a psychiatrist. His affiliated company in England is running a huge trial for Autism Speaks to see if Prozac can become an approved autism treatment. This Eric believes there are two approaches to treating autism, behavioral and medication. We hope you can open this link http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/497979for his actual wording. If you can't open it, try pasting it into your browser. You can read the article from Google. Also, see Rescue Post July 6th, Snape, Good or Evil for details about his Prozac link.

The current Autism Speaks NAAR team has never believed in the biomedical treatment of the causes of autism. They are psychiatrists. They know about behavioral conditioning and psych meds. That is their area of expertise. Would you invite a proctologist to launch a brain surgery clinic?  Only if you had your head up your......

Bob and Suzanne Wright, what does Dr. London say about the biomedical treatments your grandson is receiving?  Has he helped your precious grandson Christian, the child you cry over on national TV, with even one bit of actionable advice? Or has he turned his back on the child's progress? Denied the results you are seeing? Can he even look you in the eye?

You've run a highly effective awareness campaign. "Learn the signs." We'd like to recommend a sign to you. S-T-O-P.  Please stop and think. With the right research, with studies that could provide real help for our kids, you could save the Social Security system from the onslaught of disabled adults approaching. You could keep families together. You could be heroes and go down in history as the family who changed the world for the better. 

"Bob and Suzanne Wright, the couple who solved the autism epidemic." That could be you. You have the pocketbook. You have the passion. You have the injured family member. Do you have the courage?  We're listening, Autism Speaks.

Please tell us the message boards are wrong.

Comments

[Autism Grandma]

Re: "Autism Speaks is not part of the solution; it continues to appear to me to be part of the cover-up malignancy."

Autism Speaks---Speaks not for the genuine biomedical treatment solutions, but instead speaks for the standard procedure toxic drug laden same old shit status quo medical system. They will hire their Benedict Arnold's to do their dirty work. Reminds me of a scripture: "Satan stalks about like a lion seeking to devour someone."

[Lisa@TACA]

Wendy: this is some twisted and sick joke.

Actually - I have no clue. Just wanted to make you smile (and boy would that be just lovely anyways...)

[Gatogorra]

You called it, Kim. Doesn't it suck being right about some things? I wish every fear and intuition we had would just prove us all nuts in the end, but it's not working out that way.

[Stagmom]

Keith, that was from the old Rescue Post and the formatting was quite different. I've tried to convert it with no luck and am too darn lazy to re-input the entire post. Three kids home. ESY hasn't started. I'm lucky I can get to the bathroom a couple of times a day! :)

KIM

[Keith]

whats with the font size?

[Benedetta Stilwell]

Well thank goodness there was a split in from that association and we now have other forums. We have good people working for our children and free from the grips of Autism Speaks. Still it is the largest organization in the country for autism and yet - and yet-- I have always felt a coldness about them.

[Robin Nemeth]

You've got a broken link to Bernard Rimland's 'garbage science' letter. I found it here

http://www.autismwebsite.com/arri/v144/page3.pdf

[Ettina]

Have you even read Roy Grinker's book, or are you just deciding he's wrong because you don't like the facts?
If your child regressed, was affectionate as a baby, just 'disliked' change rather than being panicked by it, etc - then according to doctors in the 1960s, they weren't autistic. The ones who regressed were 'psychotic' children, the ones who didn't but weren't absolutely classically autistic were 'atypical' children.
And that's not even including the kids who were classically autistic but with no splinter skills and a low IQ. All of Leo Kanner's cases either had a normal IQ (at least the performance scales) or showed strengths like unusually good memory, putting together puzzles meant for older children, etc. If they didn't, they'd have been called 'retarded'.

[amom]

On EoHarm, Marty said that this business about Eric London was not true. Is Marty wrong?

[rainmom]

Ya know what really chaps my hide? Parents of children who are seeing some of the best DAN! doctors in this country- who are raising money for Autism Speaks. I tried to post the AS salaries on a local board and was denied by the moderator who said my information was not productive, and downright unfriendly.

Really? Why is it not okay to give these families a heads up. I mean, if they are going to Walk Far for AS, and send me spam messaes asking me to "join them" , why not tell them know where their money REALLY goes?

[Lenny Schafer]

Eric London has long declared himself opposed to research into environmental issues and alternative biomedical treatments. A few years back he launched some attacks against Bernard Rimland and the ARI, essentially characterizing Rimland as a quack. London's NAAR was also responsible for giving money to one of the fraudulent CDC Danish studies, with the sole purpose of generating alibis for dirty vaccines.

If true, this announcement should taken as a clear signal that AS is not serious about taking the research to where the science leads them, as Alison Singer recently pronounced. (And it should give us no doubt that the NAAR faction is running Autism Speaks.) Environmental research is only chance Autism Speaks has for having a relevant future with the autism community. Alternative biomedical treatment is where the community is taking their children in growing numbers. Parents are in wholesale numbers abandoning faith in the genetics that AS has championed with the bulk of their money. Putting London, with his anti-treatment taint in charge of AS's new found interest in environmental research is a sober signal for how uncommitted AS is to doing something real for autism. Surely AS can instead come up with toxicologist with clean political hands to do the job. Autism Speaks is not part of the solution; it continues to appear to me to be part of the cover-up malignancy.

Lenny
Founder, Schafer Autism Report

[Anon]

I know of an autism Mom who saw an American Psychiatrist just this month to talk about her child. The psychiatrist launched into a series of questions that led straight to the refrigerator Mom theory. "Did you hold the child as an infant.." Can you imagine? In 2007? The psychs are no friend to a parent of a child with autism. They are a roadblock. They believe autism is mental condition and not treatable. "A lifelong condition."

[Bob Moffitt]

I would highly recommend the entire board of Autism Speaks read the foreward by Katie Wright in "Changing the Course of Autism" by Dr. Bryan Jepson. Katie proudly signs her foreward with the declaration: "Daughter of the founders of Autism Speaks".

Why would anyone, especially Bob and Susan Wright, support someone like Eric London, who has devoted his entire career slandering parents, like Katie,who dared treat their child outside his "pyschiatric profession"? A "psychiatric profession, by the way, that has had 60 years of opportunity to advance the discredited theories of the "refrigerator moms", yet remains mired in the "mystery" of it all.

Please, Autism Speaks, (Bob and Susan) read Katie's foreward and this book, which I believe to be a desperate plea to fund critical (toxicological, biological, immunological) research that may prevent other mom's from experiencing what she experienced with Christian.

[Wendy Fournier]

Please tell me this is some sick and twisted joke.

[John Best]

The Autism Speaks forums weren't much different than trying to make a point on a Neurodiverse blog. Any useful information was deleted while the forum seemed to be owned by Autism Diva.
That association doesn't make AS look too bright.

You have the right idea to put this on your own forum instead of trying to have a reasonable discussion on an AS message board.

[Deborah]

The very idea that anyone would think that AS is out to help our environmentally damaged children would be funny if the situation wasn't so damn sad and dangerous.
When an organizations leaders will disown their own child for her beliefs the rest of us have no hope what so ever.
The best thing we as parents of children with autism can do is totally ignore AS. Stop the fund raisers, stop conversing with anyone about the organization and by no means donate any of our time and money.