University of Sydney study: no link between vaccination and autism

This.

The idea that vaccines were linked to autism took hold in 1998 when British gastroenterologist Andrew Wakefield published a paper that hypothesised that the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine could lead to the condition.

The paper has since been discredited and his research was found to be fraudulent.

In 2011, pharmaceutical scientist Dr Dennis Flaherty called Wakefield’s findings “the most damaging medical hoax of the last 100 years”.

This taken from an article in news.com.au.

And now, this article reports on settling that annoying, very damaging argument to rest. It starts:

Many parents feel immunisation is unnatural and there are prevalent fears about a link between vaccination and autism.

A new report led by the University of Sydney appears to have settled the argument.

A review of available data from around the world has found that there is no link between vaccination and the development of autism or autism spectrum disorders.

The study examined seven sets of data involving more than 1.25 million children and concluded that there was no evidence to support a relationship between common vaccines for measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough and the development of autism.

The paper’s senior author, Associate Professor Guy Eslick from the Sydney Medical School, said he was inspired to look into the issue after watching some documentaries on the medical debate.

“I thought, surely someone has put this data together. I searched; there was nothing,” Prof Eslick said.

To read more, click here.

Susan Boyle: Diagnosed with Asperger's

Susan Boyle - the Scottish singer who shot to fame on the TV show 'Britain's Got Talent' in 2009 - has revealed she has been diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, a high-functioning form of autism.

Susan told Britain's Observer newspaper she was diagnosed a year ago and told of her relief after years of bullying for her learning difficulties.

The now 52-year-old says: "It was the wrong diagnosis when I was a kid."

She adds: "I was told I had brain damage. I always knew it was an unfair label. Now I have a clearer understanding of what's wrong and I feel relieved and a bit more relaxed about myself."

Susan's rendition of 'I Dreamed A Dream', from the musical 'Les Miserables' went viral - it has garnered nearly 140 million views on YouTube. She has since recorded four - yes, FOUR! - hit albums.

Boyle's quirky sense of humour and golden voice won her legions of fans, but her rapid rise to fame and the huge press attention drove her close to breakdown.

More about Asperger's: it affects communication and social interaction. Sufferers have difficulty picking up on social cues and gauging appropriate behaviour.

Susan was, sadly, bullied throughout her school years and nicknamed "Susie Simple" by her classmates.

Susan has recently had tests which have revealed she has above-average intelligence, she tells the Observer.

"I was told my IQ was above average," she said.

Susan says her Asperger's diagnosis would not make any difference to her life: "It's just a condition that I have to live with and work through".

"I think people will treat me better because they will have a much greater understanding of who I am and why I do the things I do."

Currently, Fox Searchlight is reportedly interested in making a film of Susan Boyle's life.

Study: People with autism do not lack empathy

A new study has found that individuals with Asperger’s Syndrome don’t lack empathy – in fact if anything they empathise too much.

Yes. This ground-breaking study suggests people with autism spectrum disorders such as Asperger’s do not lack empathy – rather, they feel others’ emotions too intensely to cope.

This article says:

"People with Asperger's syndrome, a high functioning form of autism, are often stereotyped as distant loners or robotic geeks. But what if what looks like coldness to the outside world is a response to being overwhelmed by emotion – an excess of empathy, not a lack of it?

This idea resonates with many people suffering from autism-spectrum disorders and their families. It also jibes with the “intense world” theory, a new way of thinking about the nature of autism.

As posited by Henry and Kamila Markram of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne the theory suggests that the fundamental problem in autism-spectrum disorders is not a social deficiency but, rather, a hypersensitivity to experience, which includes an overwhelming fear response.

“I can walk into a room and feel what everyone is feeling,” Kamila Markram says. “The problem is that it all comes in faster than I can process it. There are those who say autistic people don’t feel enough. We’re saying exactly the opposite: They feel too much.”"

To read more of this article, click here.

This study confirms what I know about my son. He is often too emotional, too aware, too conscious of other peoples' feelings, always wanting to connect, even kissing and hugging fellow school pick-up parents at his school who he has never met. After (even before) they get over their initial shock and I explain it all, every single parent embraces and loves it.

As do I... as do I. And I wouldn't change that for anything.

'Asperger’s, Autism, and Mass Murder', by John Elder Robison. The discussion post-Sandy Hook shooting

Last night I read with interest this piece posted by notable author John Elder Robison. John is the author of 'Raising Cubby', 'Look Me in the Eye', 'My Life with Asperger’s', and 'Be Different - adventures of a free range Aspergian.'

John is also member of the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee of the US Department of Health and Human Services. He serves on the Scientific and Treatment Boards of Autism Speaks, the largest private source of autism research funding.

John grew up in the 1960s before the Asperger diagnosis had come into common use, and before 'autism spectrum' was fully understood. After dropping out of high school, he worked in the music business where he created sound effects and electronic devices, the best known of which were the signature guitars he built for the band KISS. Later, he founded Robison Service, a specialty automobile company. 

He wrote an interesting, thought-provoking piece for 'Psychology Today' titled: 'Asperger’s, Autism, and Mass Murder: Let’s stop the rush to judgment.'

"Whenever something horrible happens the public and the media look for answers... factoids to explain what may be truly inexplicable. Whatever information can be discovered is tossed out into public view in the hope that somehow a bunch of discrete facts and data points will somehow provide the answers everyone is seeking.

This happens whether the event is a catastrophic fire, a plane crash, or a mass killing. Thanks to the Internet, people all over the world speculate about what happened and why, often in the absence of any firsthand information. The result: a rush to judgment, and all too often - innocent people harmed.

Sometimes these early speculations are prescient. When reporters observed an aviation mishap and said, “the same thing happened on another flight a few years ago,” that report led to the discovery of a flaw in an aircraft’s design, and the potential saving of many lives when a design defect was corrected.

Unfortunately, on other occasions, early speculation proves unfounded, wrong, or irrelevant.  When that happens, innocent people are often harmed by the rush to judgment. I’m very concerned that is occurring right now, as the public digests news reports about the Sandy Hook school murders.

Reporters are saying the killer had Asperger’s Syndrome, a form of autism. Every time a news story does that – by tying “killer” and “Asperger’s” in the same sentence – they are at some level implying that there is a connection between autism and mass murder. There’s not.

Statisticians have a phrase for this situation: Correlation does not imply causation. Let me explain that by way of an example. Three banks are robbed, in three different cities.  Each bank had security cameras trained on the entrances.  In each case, a review of the tapes showed a white Toyota Camry turning into the parking lot, moments before the robbery.

Was that a clue? Was the same car used to rob all three banks? No. It was a random, irrelevant coincidence. In fact, white Camrys are one of the most common cars in the country and we might observe them at the scene of most anything, without any causative connection at all.

How about this factoid: Most school shooters are Caucasian males. You might find that statement a little more shocking than the previous one.  But it’s true.  Does that mean every white male Caucasian who enters a school is a potential mass murderer? Of course not

Suggesting a mass murderer had Asperger’s is much the same – it may be true, but stating the fact does nothing to explain the crime, nor does it help prevent other crimes in the future.   What it does do – and this is important – is paint a whole swath of population – Asperger people – with a brush that says “potential mass murderer.”

To continue reading, click here.

What do you think of the piece?

Target, Facebook, Autism, and how a feel-good story can turn negative, thanks to social media

Now this is an interesting post.

It demonstrates how social media can take a feelgood story - with all the right intentions - and mangle it, change its message, and give others the opportunity to cloud it with their judgement.

The positive thing to gain from this story is that it has brought to light that people with autism spectrum disorder are indeed active members in the community: they work, they contribute, they interact. Some have obvious quirks, some don't. [Or perhaps they are just better at concealing them].

Here is the recent post on the [US] Target Facebook page, by a father Jim Walter, who has a daughter diagnosed with autism:

Here are some of the comments:

Kenneth Snyder 

Yes, there are a lot of negative issues with Corporate America these days and Target is on the long list of companies that are not perfect. But must we become so posessed by cynicism that we have to mock the idea that a large corporation can do something right? There is no such thing as all good, but there's also no such thing as all bad. Yes, Target should hire the disabled because it is the right thing to do. But have you seen the real world lately? How many corporations do the right thing at all? If you have a negative opinion about Target, I'm not asking you to change it. All I am suggesting is that you wipe away the cynicism and negativity which is extremely toxic to the soul and at least open yourself to considering that Target is company you don't like but can still sometimes do the right thing.

Teresa Loffer I have a child on the spectrum and I too can pick out others as well, but there have been some who have surprisd me that I did NOT know were. The thing is, good for target. But let me say this. As a manager I had to repeatedly turn down a young man I suspected on the spectrum who was trying very hard to work for me. I had good reasons. I tried to tell him where I thought he SHOULD go to work. The people who I hire must be able to handle pressure, must be able to be SOCIALLY ATTUNED, and they have to work with NO SUPERVISION. As much as I'd have loved to have given the young man a job, I could not, in good faith, set him up for failure nor put my other clients in danger. It isn't a discrimination thing. It was heartbreaking to me to have to be that person to say no. But at the same time we have to also help our auties find the right jobs for them.

Darlene Smiley Hewitt I have a child with autism, and this story made me smile, and have hope! Companies SHOULD hire people with autism, they have many talents and could make very good employees, just might need a little extra help.

Lucien-Joseph Galloy That has to be the most pointless and irrelevant story ever posted here.

Darcie Merchant ‎@Lucien, I would much rather read an uplifting story about gratuity and love towards an individual with autism than about mass genocide in Africa. Besides, the "most pointless and irrelevant story ever posted" couldn't possibly be this. I mean, please, all the "sideboob celeb shots" have GOT to be in the Top Three.

Why do some people always take an incident that's supposed to be a positive tribute and turn it into something so negative?

Jamie Rose Hey I know I don't know you but. I work at old navy an we have an autistic girl that works for us. I was FURIOUS one day when a customer told me my associate was "annoying" her on the sales floor. My associate was doing all the same things I would do! I was so angry! Remember there are NO limitations just because of autism! Thanks for sharing your story

Darcie Kocan So he is a doctor than; therefore, he can diagnose someone because he has spent ten minutes with them in their line. Ok.

CrazyDave Fournier Darcie Kocan, way to be positive, him and myself must be doctors, cause I just diagnosed you with a case of the "way to be a bitc*" and sorry it looks terminal!!!!!

Nancy Harp Smith My son is also on the autism spectrum and is working at Best Buy. YAY for these companies who give handicapped individuals a chance, and YAY for the handicapped individuals who bravely face their fears and tackle the unknown to go to work each day.

You can read all the comments here: https://www.facebook.com/target/posts/10151145180098120?notif_t=feed_comment

And you can read the original Huffington Post story here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jim-walter/target-facebook-post_b_1847882.html