Researchers stopping doing brain imaging work is such a weird hill to die on |
DP. We participate in longtudinal research at NIH. Pre-COVID, my DS went every year for a re-evaluation and an MRI. I'm glad they're not soley focusing on therapies. While insights may be slow in coming, it's all part of understanding the brain and functioning. I have no idea if autism could ever be diagnosed using brain imaging and don't care if it never can be. This research may not help my kid directly but it's likely to contribute to better understanding his disorder as well as other disorders. |
I don’t think its a weird hill to die on AT ALL to want scarce resources to go to actually helping people, instead of researchers running after whatever looks most impressive. There’s always a role for basic science, but frankly the generic and brain-based research for autism has been a huge bust. |
| *genetic |
I’m glad it gives you hope. But how much better would it be if they actually delivered evidence-based therapies to your kid and studied how well they worked. |
| I wish people posting about tech hubs and prenatal drinking understood that Ireland and Northern Ireland are two different places. Northern Ireland has the high diagnoses rate while Ireland is a tech hub with high rates of prenatal drinking. |
They’re not wrong about the possibility of epigenetic impacts of trauma, though. |
Belfast is in Northern Ireland, I believe. It's a fintech hub, |
| Amish people have zero autism. Wonder why. |
There are some autistic Amish people: https://imfar.confex.com/imfar/2010/webprogram/Paper7336.html But there are other genetic diseases that are prevalent in the Amish. "Health among the Amish is characterized by higher incidences of particular genetic disorders, especially among the Old Order Amish. These disorders include dwarfism, Angelman syndrome, and various metabolic disorders, such as Tay-Sachs disease, as well as an unusual distribution of blood types." https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_among_the_Amish |
It is a weird hill to die on bc if you are a neurobiologist you’re not just going to give up on finding the root cause of the worlds most prevalent neurological disorders. Nor should they |
How much better it would be if IDEA were fully funded and I didn't have to battle the school for services/supports. How much better it would be if there were more service providers taking insurance. How much better it would be if families could get respite relief. There are a lot more things in the game of 'how much better'. Everyone has there own favorite 'how much better'. |
Amish people don't use the public schools, don't have health insurance, don't use "English" medical care unless it's completely unavoidable and take care of their own within their own insular communities for their whole lives. They have strong religious beliefs about accepting illness and disabilities as divine will. Of course they record no cases of autism, because they have zero need or motivation to seek a formal diagnosis. Why would they bother? I'm sure there are autistic Amish people just like everywhere else, they just don't bother with labels. |
DP. I looked for studies to support the first PPs assertion that autism isn't present in Amish communities. Not surprisingly, I found none. I found a bunch of similarly unsubstantiated claims about Amish health. Given the heritability of autism, it shouldn't be surprising that an insular group would have few cases if those genes aren't present in their pool. |
It's not hope. It's science. It's statistically likely that research into the organic causes and structure of a disorder will lead to improved understanding and treatment of the disorder. |