Even the title is wrong – should be a research strategy to discover if there are any environmental causes… He’s been hell-bent on proving something not known to exist and misdirecting effort for years with his mania.
Autism, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), mental retardation, dyslexia, and other biologically based disorders of brain development affect between 400,000 and 600,000 of the 4 million children born in the United States each year. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported that autism spectrum disorder (ASD) now affects 1.13% (1 of 88) of American children (CDC 2012) and ADHD affects 14% (CDC 2005; Pastor and Reuben 2008). Treatment of these disorders is difficult; the disabilities they cause can last lifelong, and they are devastating to families. In addition, these disorders place enormous economic burdens on society (Trasande and Liu 2011).
Although discovery research to identify the potentially preventable causes of neuro-develop-mental disorders (NDDs) has increased in recent years, more research is urgently needed. This research encompasses both genetic and environ-mental studies.
Take a measurement of your choice. 10% of subjects will be in the top 10% and 10% will be in the bottom 10%. Call the measurement a spectrum and you can conjure up funds for study and treatment. This strategy works 100% of the time.
It also helps that many of these “diseases” are defined only by behaviors, meaning you can double the number of people “suffering from the disease”
by adding a few more symptoms. It’s a sweet deal. Make your own disease and blame whatever you want. (This is not to say that people don’t suffer from behaviours associated with ADHD, autism, etc. I am only saying that being able to create a list of symptoms and call it a disease is just as cool as Congressmen raising their own salaries.)
I can offer a theory that explains the “increase” in autism: The government(s) subsidize it. If your child is “declared” to be autistic you get financial and social support not to mention special treatment by government run agencies like schools. If you are a school or child care facility you get subsidies based on the number of autistic children you care for. Children who years ago may have been diagnosed as low IQ or slow to develop are now magically autistic.
But I have a solution, a cure: Stop all the subsidies and favoritism and give the parents of autistic children nothing and give the schools nothing. The autism rates will decline. Maybe then parents who believe in witchcraft over science will begin vaccinating their children once again.
My apologies to parents with autistic children. My rant may have seemed insulting. Au contraire, the exploitation and diminishment of autism by those who would profit by it are the insult. The truth, however uncomfortable, is merely the truth.
“Even the title is wrong…”
It isn’t wrong when you realize just how corrupt and fraudulent most government funded science is. WUWT has a great post on July 1st: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/07/01/uk-conference-of-science-journalists-institutions-unlikely-to-fairly-investigate-allegations-of-fraud-made-against-their-own/