Autism Street

It’s been about three months since I lasted posted here that I’d be blogging about INSAR’s International Meeting For Autism Research (IMFAR). In case you missed it, and are interested, I attended IMFAR, and I did blog a little bit about my visit over at Left Brain/Right Brain:

Blogging IMFAR: Opening Press Conference and GFCF Diet Trial Results
Blogging IMFAR: Autism And Divorce Debunked, Among Others
Blogging IMFAR: Exceprts Of An Interview With David Mandell, ScD
Blogging IMFAR: Meet Roy Richard Grinker
Blogging IMFAR: Wrap-Up Notes

It pains me, to some degree, that I haven’t been blogging much here at Autism Street in the past year though.

Autism Street began about five years ago, when I began looking a little more closely at a “chelation for autism” study in Arizona. Besides being rejected by ASU’s IRB, and taken up by the Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine, the study (in what many might call “autism quackery”) was actually promoted to parents of autistic children in Arizona by Arizona’s Division of Developmental Disabilities.

Since those early beginngs, I wrote about many different subjects from the perspective of skeptic who happens to be a dad with an autistic son. Topics ranged from trends and points of interest in autism epidemiology/diagnosis, questionable treatments, and personal thoughts on autism and parenting, to detailed examination of some of the relevant science, and commentary on what seems to be media-pervasive anti-vaccine (and largely anti-scientific) nonsense. For readers who may be visiting Autism Street for the first time, yet after the date of this final post, a diverse collection of links to “The Best Of Autism Street” appears in the sidebar - I think it provides a largely representative sample of what grew to be nearly a couple of hundred articles over the years.

The past five years of writing at Autism Street was a rewarding experience, and I have a lot of people to thank for their thoughtful roles.

I would be remiss not to thank scientifically minded bloggers like Orac over at Respectful Insolence, who not only discussed numerous basic research science questions with me via e-mail when I had them early on, but even welcomed my participation in the Skeptics’ Circle, as well as a jointly written piece (at his blog) on some of the logical fallacy from one Dr. Jay Gordon (apparent anti-vaccine sympathizer and supporter of Jenny McCarthy).

I would be even more remiss not to thank a few other bloggers who partcipated here at Autism Street - from several detailed evaluations of anti-vaccination and Defeat Autism Now! type nonsense co-written with blogger NotMercury, to several in-depth looks and commentary on “autism research” and science co-written with Interverbal (Interverbal) and Prometheus (Photon In The Darkness), as well as guest pieces written by others.

But most of all, I thank the readers who participated in the discussions that followed many of the posts. It’s true that many readers/commenters seemed to be the misinformed, misled, and or conspiracy-believing anti-vaccine leaning types, simply trolling the comments or parroting their tired talking points, but I think far more were scientifically-inclined, open-minded, truly respectful-of-autistic-people, and providers of thoughtful contribution to the discussion at hand.

I’d also like to add a personal “thank you” to fellow presenters of Autism-Hub blogging at USD’s Summer Autism Institute over the years: Steve (One Dad’s Opinion), Bev (Square 8), and Autism Diva (Autism Diva), as well as Kevin Leitch, who created the original Autism-Hub, leading to some of the collaboration with other hub bloggers that followed.

I don’t necessarily plan to stop blogging altogether. I may occasionally post corrections to points in past articles (where new or better information or understanding warrants it) here at Autism Street. And for now, I plan leave Autism Street online as long as I can afford the hosting - some would claim that shouldn’t be a problem (with bloggers who support sound science along with respect for autistic people being “in the pockets” of the vaccine arm of “Big Pharmaceuticals” and all), but my checkbook tells a different story.

When and if I do blog, you’ll most likely find me with Kev and Sullivan, et al. over at Left Brain/Right Brain.

Did you like the Autism Street blog? Hate it? As usual, the comments are open.

INSAR’s annual International Meeting For Autism Research (IMFAR) is convening in Philadelphia next week (May 20-22).

Thanks, in part, to a generous travel grant from the Autism Science Foundation, I’ll have the opportunity to attend - and of course I’ll be blogging about it over at LBRB.

For the most part, I plan to write about research, projects, researchers themselves, or talks that I find interesting and attain sufficient understanding, but I’ll also be sharing a little with LBRB readers, about the overall IMFAR experience upon my return. I’m also looking forward to attending the Autism Science Foundation’s “Science and Sandwiches” where plans for this IMFAR lunchtime edition include presentations “from six ASF-funded pre-doctoral students who will describe their new research projects”.

Read more…

Yep, I’m shilling for LBRB. The truth is, that I’m slammin’ busy at work these days (a very good problem to have). I’ll simply have to settle for pointing interested readers to some fresh reading - a couple of posts up from Sullivan, and one from yours truly.

Clinical trial of Donepezil for improving REM sleep in autistic children

Sullivan discusses his thoughts about a new clinical trial aimed at scientifically evaluating whether or not  donepezil can increase REM sleep in autistic children (possibly leading to improved cognition).

Trine Tsouderos and Patricia Callahan honored by the Association of Health Care Journalists for autism series

Chicago Tribune journalists, Trine Tsouderos and Patricia Callahan, were awarded first place by the Association of Health Care Journalists for their autism series Dubious Medicine. Sullivan (via Autism News Beat) brings you the details.

Does The NIH Want To Study Jenny McCarthy’s Son?

A new clinical study from the NIH wants to look at “recovered” autistic kids. Jenny McCarthy has complained on more than one occasion that no health authority seems to want to know how she “cured” her son. That looks to be a thing of the past now. Will Jenny step up to the plate and participate? Is she spreading the word to her Generation Rescue Followers?

Over at the AoA blog, Dan Olmsted is stil ranting about the Andrew Wakefield saga. This time it’s about some of the mainstream media’s coverage of the Lancet retraction. The Wakefield Inquisition: Case Series Insanity

I’m not going to bother trying to explain to Dan why he’s attacking a straw man - a likely false position of the Lancet that the retraction of Wakefield’s 1998 Lancet paper is grounded in statistical error due to “selection bias”. Instead, I’m simply going to present a few selected quotes from Olmsted’s piece, evidence from a document he states should have been read, and ask him to reconcile the contradiction (without resorting to conspiracy theory).

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Unless you live in a cave, you’re probably well aware of the GMC findings against Andrew Wakefield, the primary author of the 1998 Lancet paper that claimed to study children who were reffered to a hospital’s pediatric GI department with specific behavioral and GI sypmtoms following vaccination with the MMR. Among many ethical problems, by now you’re probably aware that the GMC concluded that the children in the 1998 study were not all referred, nor did they all have the GI symptoms as claimed in the paper. There was a partial retraction by several of the co-authors years ago, but the paper was officially retracted by the Lancet on February 2nd this year.

You’re probably also aware that the journal Neurotoxicology withdrew, what is now to many, Hewitson-Wakefield’s infamous “monkey study“.

Finally, it’s been reported that Andrew Wakefield no longer calls Thoughtful House his workplace.

It’s been an eventful couple of weeks for those who’ve been following news about Andrew Wakefield, and to say the least, it doesn’t look good for Wakefield.  Probably interesting to at least some, was the relative lack of any public statement amidst recent events, by Wakefield (or Thoughtful House, until very recently, and indirectly at that). Wakefield has seemed to remain pretty much silent. But, the silence is apparently over.

Where did Wakefield make what appears to be his first public statement in a couple of weeks? At the AoA Blog, in an interview with Dan Olmsted.

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There’s an interesting discussion going on.

By now, many are aware of the proposed changes the DSM for autism that will subsume Asperger’s and PDD-NOS.

Some have expressed the view that this is a good thing, yet others seem to feign agreement while also expressing some degree of contempt.

Amidst the apparent concerns of a few, there are voices focused on the ethical and human rights implications of opposing the DSM changes. Particularly, please read Angry Aspies, Please Go Away by Bev over at Square 8.

On a side note: I know Bev to be a person who diligently promotes acceptance and human rights for all autistic people, and she’s apparently an early adopter of the pending new definition - she’s already changed the title of her blog and description of its purpose (it used to be Asperger Square 8).

If you’re interested in a little more background, check out Conversations by ABFH over at Whose Planet Is It Anyway?.

In addition to Bev and ABFH’s places, more discussion can be found over at Left Brain Right Brain, where Bev’s post also caught Kev’s eye. While I was perusing the comments at LBRB, this comment from Daedalus2u stood out. It’s empathetic at first and thoughtful throughout, but if you ask me, it succinctly points out what is right in this whole thing as a conclusion.

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Liz over at I Speak Of Dreams is keeping a list of several blog responses.

Visit the following link for more:

tinyurl.com/yz3vpor