Boston Globe 

Back in April, 2012 Liz Szabo at USA Today was all excited about efforts to “reshape [autistic] children’s brains.” And brain imaging was the way to go. Alas, Deborah Kotz over at The Boston Globe has just announced that it may not be happening. Szabo and Kotz are old hands at denying everything about autism. It’s rare that they have anything meaningful to say so the brain imaging idea was a big deal. Researchers were finally getting closer to maybe knowing something important about this disorder. I guess Szabo and Kotz will have to go back to their usual verbiage of “studies show no link” and “no real increase—better diagnosing.”

Boston Globe: “Pelphrey, who has an autistic son, doesn’t seem so optimistic now. In an opinion piece he co-authored this week in the journal Nature, he called into question the reliability of the fMRI images on which the theory is based.”

“But recent studies have found that when people who don’t have autism move their head while undergoing fMRI, the connectivity patterns that result resemble patterns seen in the brains of those with autism.

“‘That’s a sobering discovery,’ Pelphrey and Deen wrote. ‘It means that a major source of evidence for a leading hypothesis on autism, and one that several research teams have pursued for years, may arise from an artefact.’”

York University (CANADA) study

While lots of people in the U.S. are trying to convince us not to worry about the DSM 5, York University in Toronto, Canada, is raising serious concerns.

Making the epidemic go away is what I call these changes. If, while excluding Asperger’s, as they did here, the Canadian story still found that 20 percent of AUTISM kids lost their diagnosis and 83 percent of PPD-NOS kids did, it’s a pretty safe bet that we can all relax. There’s no crisis. There never was. With most of the PDD and all the Asperger’s GONE---. It was OVER-DIAGNOSING.

York University: “Eighty-one per cent of the children diagnosed with autism using the old criteria also qualified for the new diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder. But only 17 per cent of the PDD-NOS kids did. Many more of the children with low IQs fit the new description than those with high IQs.”

Forbes:

Emily Willingham doesn’t like my comments and doesn’t hesitate to post responses to me. I’m sure she’ll be right there telling me I’m off topic here. I don’t think so. She never heard an official autism claim she doesn’t like. She denies any increase or any real problem with autism. The controversy over vaccines needs to be silenced according to her previous articles.

We just need to accommodate ASD people. An IMFAR conference was the perfect place for her.

Having just attended what I think must be the biggest autism research conference in the world, I can confirm that there’s a real dearth of autistic voices in research.

Given this paucity, for Autistics Speaking Day, I asked autistic people what scientific research would help them the most. The current emphasis in the research community is on cure, prevention, and treatment. Not surprisingly to anyone paying attention, two of these areas are of little interest to autistics. Treatment that homes in on specific deficits held some value for the respondents, but the top five things they mentioned mostly have to do with help navigating a world that can be quite alien and gaining a better understanding from the other inhabitants of that world.

Fort Myers (FL) News-Press

A once rare disorder is now so common that it’s being diagnosed at your local McDonald’s. Twenty years ago, when my son was diagnosed, they had to get a psychologist from Minneapolis to come to Chippewa Falls WI and tell us what was wrong. Today they’re able to do it at fast food restaurants---now that is better diagnosing!  I remember crying when she told us.  I’d hate to see parents sobbing as people are eating all around them.  That’s a bizarre scene to picture. 

This is more of the numbing down of America to just accept that lots of kids---maybe your own---are going to have autism. We don’t have a clue why but we’re getting better and better at recognizing it. America seems so willing to surrender its children to autism.

Science Daily: 

This piece about the findings published in Pediatrics basically says that the latest study shows more studies are needed.  The American Academy of Pediatrics is again mystified about autism. It seems that there’s little evidence to support the interventions used for autism. So in their exhaustive efforts to address their complete and continual ignorance, more studies are needed. I’m wondering if insurers could use this TO DENY COVERAGE FOR TREATMENT.

Notice too that AUTISM IS NEVER A CRISIS TO THE AAP. It’s merely “a major public health issue.”

(That puts it on a par with covering your mouth while coughing.)

CBS47 Fresno CA: 

There was no place for comments here. Please note the remark by Dr. Adam Urato of Tufts Medical Center in Boston about SSRIs in pregnancy: “We have never before in human history chemically altered fetal development in the way that we have done with these drugs. This is a massive experiment and we don’t know what the outcome will be.” 

Would this same doctor also say this about the ever-expanding, unchecked vaccine schedule? “We have never before in human history chemically altered children’s development in the way that we have done with all these vaccines. This is a massive experiment and we don’t know what the outcome will be.”

Why are antidepressants capable of damaging kids, but not vaccines? 

CBS Pittsburgh:

The United States of Autism—America learning to live with autism as a fact of life.

I didn’t leave a comment because there’s nothing really to say. No one sees a problem here. It’s: just more of America adjusting to the autism epidemic---a disorder overwhelming our children that we are powerless to stop. Our only option is to accommodate those who are affected and pretend that everything is finel. This will be harder and harder to do of course with growing numbers of these children reaching adulthood with no place to go. Still, we’ll keep on seeing stories like this. What else can we do?

Journal-Gazette Plans:

More of the really big lie about autism: There’s been no real increase, just better diagnosing.

For people in the autism community, it’s not even an issue. We know what’s clear to anyone honestly looking at this, a once-rare disorder is now so common that everyone knows someone—probably lots of people—who have a child on the spectrum. This doesn’t stop members of the press and medical experts from still giving us the worn-out claim that there’s been no real increase.

Here it is again. There’s no place for comments on this piece or I’d point out the reality of the autism epidemic.

It seems hopeless when I see the creation of a new autism center described as “a very exciting step,” but I am sure of two things: the epidemic is real and it’s unstoppable. The massive number of affected individuals will change the demographics of the United States profoundly. The longer we pretend it’s not happening, the more severe will be the impact of autism on all of us.

I’m also sure that authorities will never admit anything about autism. They’re paralyzed by fear. Any confirmation of an epidemic increase opens the door to speculation on the cause—and the role of vaccines. It’s become more and more difficult to propose that it’s all better diagnosing—but they’re going to keep on doing it. They have no choice.

Daily American: 

This is outrageous to read. This doctor defends the use of mercury (although he doesn’t call thimerosal MERCURY), he says there’s no increase in autism and he claims that there’s been a vaxed/unvaxed study showing no difference.

I was respectful but resolute in my comments. How can doctors continue this lame defense all the while ignoring autism?

“Despite anecdotal Internet reports to the contrary, vaccines remain very safe and very effective. Multiple epidemiological studies have shown the rate of autism in unvaccinated children is identical to the rate in those that are vaccinated.

:The apparent increasing incidence of autism is probably more related to an expanded diagnostic definition. Despite having no evidence of harm from the miniscule amounts of Thimerisol used in vaccines, it has been removed from all vaccines (except for certain types of flu vaccine

The Post-Standard:

I was thinking of all the severely autistic children I personally know as I read this. It’s hard to look at a photo of someone smiling sweetly while they are “celebrating” the 30^th anniversary of the autism center in Syracuse.

We’re given one stunning statement about the number of kids with autism:

“During that time, the number of children diagnosed with autism has increased, because there are more youngsters with the disorder and experts have become better at identifying it, said Carroll Grant, the center’s director, involved in the program since its inception.”

We’re not told here that one in every 88 children officially has autism today. Nor are we told that in the 1970s, one in every 10,000 children was affected.

If you consider that everyone at the center has a good reason to celebrate---because they’re making their living from the autism disaster---why would they want it to stop? Why would they demand ANSWERS?

How could they watch 30 years of autism exploding and not be in a panic?

I dread the future for so many kids I know. It’s beyond belief to see autism talked about like this.

U.S. News: 

A new study can’t find autism before 6 months of age.  The medical/scientific communities long ago turned their collective backs on our children. The vast suffering of so many children is a mere curiosity and U.S. News loves to talk about it.

U.S. News describes a fantasy world of autism where we just need to diagnose earlier. “There are so many wonderful things we can do while the brain is young and malleable.”

U.S. News isn’t concerned over the cause. No one wants to discuss that. They pretend that all we can do is look for the signs and nothing else matters. Years of studies like this tell us nothing.  The myth here is that kids are born with autism, more work is needed to see it sooner.

Is regression an issue? No.

The spin on that here is “Children with autism typically developed noticeable symptoms either around their first birthday or later in toddlerhood but still prior to their third birthday.” 

Are we to believe that when a child suddenly stops talking and starts spinning and head banging, he or she is just developing “noticeable symptoms”?   

“The development of 6-month-old babies who are diagnosed with autism in toddlerhood is very similar to that of children without autism, a new study suggests.”

If these children are developing NORMALLY until 6 months why aren’t they asking WHY THEY SUDDENLY CHANGED? The comment link isn’t working or I’d be asking these questions myself.

Standard-Examiner:

With a million children with autism in the U.S., shouldn’t a few of state and federal elected officials be ASD parents?  No one else seems to be taking autism seriously unless it affects them personally.  Maybe an autism mom could be a voice for the one in 49 in Utah.

“At the top of Bitton’s priorities, however, is helping families deal with autism.

“‘It doesn’t seem like anyone else is going with a cause,’ Bitton said.

“Like her 11-year-old son, she said, 1 in 47 children in Utah suffer from autism.

“She said the state Legislature had the opportunity to help out families with autism insurance.

“‘They had the opportunity to pass it in March, but they shelved it and they passed a smaller bill,’ Bitton said. ‘It seems like they are shoving us aside for a later day and not doing anything about it.’”