Showing posts with label applied autism research. Show all posts

YES! US Senate Passes CARA, Combating Autism Reauthorization Act!




Excellent! The US Senate has now passed CARA,  the Combating Autism Reauthorization Act, and it should soon be headed to President Obama's office where it has already been indicated the President would sign! The US has led the way in useful autism research and the only real hope for improved autism treatments and cures for autistic children and adults in Canada rest with American researchers.

As stated on Autism Votes.org, an Autism Speaks initiative:

CARA Bill News:
Sept. 26 Bulletin!
CARA WINS FINAL APPROVAL IN THE SENATE!
NEW YORK, N.Y. (September 26, 2011) – The United States Senate this evening passed the Combating Autism Reauthorization Act of 2011 by unanimous consent, sending the bill to President Obama for his signature. Enactment of the bill, which the President has promised, will assure that federal support for autism, research, services and treatment will continue uninterrupted for another three years.


CARA would authorize a total of $693 million on continued biomedical and treatment research on autism and require further development of an overall strategic plan for the intensification, expansion and better coordination of federal efforts designed to help persons with autism and their families. The fight for CARA in the Senate has been led by Senators Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Mike Enzi (R-WY).


CARA renews the Combating Autism Act which was signed into law on December 19, 2006 by President George Bush following a nearly unanimous Congressional vote. The CAA made a clear statement by the U.S. government on the public health emergency posed by the growing prevalence of ASDs, and the lack of adequate research, effective treatments, and services to address this urgent and growing crisis.


The bill was unanimously voted out of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on September 7 and had been awaiting final Senate action. Recognizing the short time left for Congress to act, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) last week agreed to expedite a vote in the House where the bill cleared by two-thirds voice vote. The measure, HR.2005, sponsored by Representatives Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Mike Doyle (D-PA), attracted strong bipartisan support in both houses of Congress and was originally sponsored in the Senate by Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Senator Mike Enzi (R-WY).

Here in Canada our CIHR has long been pandering to the Neurodiversity, anti-ABA, anti-autism cure research crowd.  A National Autism Symposium was rescheduled to prevent ABA activists, including me, from participating.  Featured participants at the rescheduled event included anti-ABA activists Michelle Dawson, Dr. Laurent Mottron, Dr. Peter Szatmari, Dr. Susan Bryson and Dr. Eric Fombonne.  Mottron (Dr. M) expressed his anti-autism cure beliefs in a human rights tribunal hearing of Michelle Dawson's human rights complaint against Canada Post. 

Passing CARA does not guarantee that treatments or cures for autism disorders will be found or that the causes, including environmental causes, of autism disorders will be found.  It does mean that these things are still possible. If there is still hope for research breakthroughs that will provide real help for autistic children and adults, including those severely affected by autistic disorder, it is because of autism research being conducted in the United States.

Once again, this Canadian autism dad says Thank You to our American neighbors.

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What Passes for Autism Research?



A new "study" informs us that persons with Asperger's Disorder and High Functioning Autism  are more likely to be atheists. 

How does that help us understand the biological basis for autism disorders? How does that help us understand the causes of autism disorders? How does that help us find treatments or cures for a serious neurological disorder? How does that help us understand the lives of those severely affected by autism disorders who live their lives dependent on the care of others? 

Apart from the subject matter the study also excluded low functioning persons with autistic disorder, those with intellectual disabilities and those living in institutional care. The chart above distinguishes between NT "neurotypical" and ASD "autism spectrum disorder" which were all Aspergers and High Functioning Autistic persons. Apparently it is OK to excluded the large numbers of persons with autistic disorder who are intellectually disabled and/or low functioning when reaching conclusions about persons with autism spectrum disorders. 

Apparently anything can constitute "autism research"?

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Autism and Cancer Research and Understanding Undergo Similar Paradigm Shifts

Autism research has been marked by an obsession with genetic focused research at the expense of research examining potential environmental causes or triggers of autism.  The frozen "it's gotta be genetic" mindset  of the autism research establishment identified years ago by Teresa Binstock might finally be shattered by recent efforts including the California Autism Twins Study (CATS). It is interesting too to learn that cancer research has also been slowed by a similar obsession with genetic research and ignoring of possible environmental factors.

In Cancer: Belatedly, Environmental Causes Get their Due  Justine Chow and Feifei Li, Research Assistants with the Environmental Working Group, comment on a  recent Duke University study which highlights a dramatic change in thinking among cancer specialists and practicing oncologists who now increasingly see pollution and other environmental factors as causes of cancer:

"For decades, most cancer researchers focused on genetics, diet, smoking and aging populations as the chief culprits, all but dismissing other environmental factors. As recently as 2003, a World Health Organization report featured the conventional wisdom that only 1-to-4 percent of all cancers were due to pollution.

More cancer specialists and oncologists see environmental link

A new report by Duke University researchers highlights the dramatic shift since then among cancer specialists and practicing oncologists. In a paper being published in the September issue of the Journal of Oncology Practice, the Duke team reports on a survey of young oncologists it conducted at the 2010 Australia and Asia Pacific Clinical Oncology Research and Development Workshop.

The Duke researchers found that these specialists from low- to middle-income countries consider pollution and other environmental factors one of the three top reasons for the growing burden of cancer in their countries. Close to a third (32 percent) called environmental factors important contributors, contradicting the traditional reserve that cancer researchers and physicians felt about attributing cancer to environmental causes.

Even though air, water and soil pollution became a major concern during the 20th century, only recently has compelling evidence mounted that carcinogenic chemicals are taking a significant toll on human health. Case studies of water and soil contamination are finding cancer clusters and population-wide epidemiological trends that link pollution to increases in the overall cancer burden, especially in impoverished regions where exposures are often higher than in wealthier nations."

It is likely that the cancer and practicing oncologist world, like the autism world,  will have their own Oracles who will be unable to thaw out their rigid mind sets and consider the interaction of genetics and environment as a more informed model for conducting research and understanding human health issues.  Still it is encouraging to see that the paradigm shift taking place in the world of autism research,  a shift which replaces the purely genetic model with the gene environment model may be reinforced by a similar shift taking place in other areas of human health.

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Pandemrix Swine Flu Vaccine and Narcolepsy: Lesson for Autism Research?


                                                
                                                         (AFP Photo and Caption)

As the parent of a soon to be 15 year old boy with severe Autistic Disorder I have never attributed his autism disorder to vaccines. I have always accepted the view of public health authorities that there is little or no evidence linking autism to vaccines. With that mindset I never endorsed Jenny McCarthy's views of autism and vaccines although I admired her courage in fighting for her son.

At the other end of the vaccine autism battlefield I support vaccine programs generally as vitally important public health tools but I have become increasingly concerned by the campaign to discredit those who question vaccine safety and the certainty with which Vaccine Generals like Dr. Paul Offit and Dr. David H. Gorski aka Orac have declared that all vaccines and vaccine ingredients can never cause any autism disorder in any child.  Given the lack of certainty about what autism is biologically, given the shifting autism definitions used to attack what appears to be an obvious and astounding increase in autism disorders,  I don't see how the epidemiological studies can be that definitive. A particular question for me is whether the studies have actually ruled out the possibility that vaccines given to pregnant women might cause or trigger autism in the children they are carrying. Another major question arises from the failure to conduct studies comparing autism rates in existing vaccinated and unvaccinated populations. 

Dr. Offit is the gentle, sweater wearing uncle type who poses for an adoring media and declares parents to be timid fearful sorts who can not understand science and the big picture.  Dr. David H. Gorski, aka Orac, is the snarling pitbull who delivers incessant attacks on vaccine questioners AND actual anti-vaxxers with scientific terminology like WOO, QUACK, IDIOT  and so on.  Both may soon be called on to lead their minions into battle again with news of a study out of Finland, as reported by AFP, which found that children injected with the Pandemrix swine flu vaccine were nine times more likely to contract narcolepsy than those who were not vaccinated  :

"Children injected with the Pandemrix swine flu vaccine were nine times more likely to contract narcolepsy than those who were not vaccinated, a preliminary study by Finland's National Institute for Health and Welfare, THL, showed Tuesday.
"Currently, the most likely explanation is that the increase in narcolepsy is by joint effect of the vaccine and some other factor(s)," THL said.
The institute stressed in its preliminary study that more investigation was needed, but said young people aged four to 19 had a "manifold increased risk of falling ill with narcolepsy" if they had been inoculated against swine flu with Pandemrix."

....


Narcolepsy is a sleep disorder which causes extreme fatigue and often results in the patient falling soundly asleep without warning, even in the middle of an activity.
Doctors in Finland reported a more than trippling of narcolepsy cases during the swine flue pandemic, and THL said "the risk of falling ill with narcolepsy among those vaccinated in the 4-19 years age group was nine-fold in comparison to those unvaccinated in the same age group."
...
"The observed association (with the vaccine) is so evident that it is unlikely that other so-called confounding factors could fully explain the phenomenon," THL said, adding its next step was to evaluate if other factors had created "joint effects" with Pandemrix.


It is interesting that a direct comparison of narcolepsy rates was made between those who were vaccinated with the H1N1 vaccine and those who were not. On the autism front former CDC directors Dr. Bernadine Healy and Dr. Julie Gerberding have both been reported in the past as stating that a comparison of autism rates amongst existing vaccinated and unvaccinated populations could and should be done. Their advice has been actively resisted by public health spokespersons. Dr. Offit and Dr. Gorski, each in their own way, will now undoubtedly be called upon to quell any concerns about vaccines and narcolepsy.


Meanwhile the comparative study of autism rates in existing vaccinated and unvaccinated populations will not be done. Unfortunately.

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