The Kids Who Beat Autism: New York Times
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Anonymous
My "negative" attitude? Hon, if I was negative I would not have tried every treatment. And if you or anyone RELIES on my perspective to the point where they fail to seek treatment, they are ignorant parents. Autism can not be cured. If a child is cured, he had challenges but it was not a trueASD dc to start with. Our doctors and researchers are changing the criteria for the dx. That should tell you they still don't know enough about this. |
Anonymous
Name those professionals who say Autism can be cured. Name them now. I will call them. |
Anonymous
James Copland http://www.drcoplan.com/ https://www.rethinkfirst.com/community/news/Story.aspx?ID=1008 |
Anonymous
This is a less standard treatment than what Copland would recommend, but Dr. Chez is running a study that is using cord blood to treat autism. Michael Chez http://www.sutterhealth.org/dr-michael-chez.html http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/10/24/clinical-trial-attempts-to-cure-autism-with-cord-blood/ Study link: http://clinicaltrials.gov/show/NCT01638819 |
Anonymous
I'm curious as to whether you actually read the article. It specifically addresses the issue of misdiagnosis. Moreover, the article also addresses the fact that current therapies don't work nearly as well with more than 90 percent of the children diagnosed with autism. The kids that are "cured" are unfortunately a very very small minority. Not sure why you are so vehemently opposed to this rare piece of positive news. . . hopefully by studying these kids closely doctors may get clues to help better reach the larger population of kids with autism. |
Anonymous
Why don't you start with Catherine Lord and Deborah Fein, autism EXPERTS who did these two separate studies. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23320807 Optimal outcome in individuals with a history of autism. Fein D1, Barton M, Eigsti IM, Kelley E, Naigles L, Schultz RT, Stevens M, Helt M, Orinstein A, Rosenthal M, Troyb E, Tyson K. Author information Abstract BACKGROUND: Although autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are generally considered lifelong disabilities, literature suggests that a minority of individuals with an ASD will lose the diagnosis. However, the existence of this phenomenon, as well as its frequency and interpretation, is still controversial: were they misdiagnosed initially, is this a rare event, did they lose the full diagnosis, but still suffer significant social and communication impairments or did they lose all symptoms of ASD and function socially within the normal range? METHODS: The present study documents a group of these optimal outcome individuals (OO group, n=34) by comparing their functioning on standardized measures to age, sex, and nonverbal IQ matched individuals with high-functioning autism (HFA group, n=44) or typical development (TD group, n=34). For this study, 'optimal outcome' requires losing all symptoms of ASD in addition to the diagnosis, and functioning within the nonautistic range of social interaction and communication. Domains explored include language, face recognition, socialization, communication, and autism symptoms. RESULTS: Optimal outcome and TD groups' mean scores did not differ on socialization, communication, face recognition, or most language subscales, although three OO individuals showed below-average scores on face recognition. Early in their development, the OO group displayed milder symptoms than the HFA group in the social domain, but had equally severe difficulties with communication and repetitive behaviors. CONCLUSIONS: Although possible deficits in more subtle aspects of social interaction or cognition are not ruled out, the results substantiate the possibility of OO from autism spectrum disorders and demonstrate an overall level of functioning within normal limits for this group. http://weillcornell.org/clord Catherine Lord, Ph.D. is a licensed clinical psychologist with specialties in diagnosis, social and communication development and intervention in autism spectrum disorders (ASD). She is renowned for her work in longitudinal studies of children with autism as well as for her role in developing the autism diagnostic instruments used in both practice and in research worldwide today. She has also been involved in the development of standardized diagnostic instruments for ASD with colleagues from the United Kingdom and the United States (the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) an observational scale; and the Autism Diagnostic Interview – Revised (ADI-R) a parent interview), now considered the gold standard for research diagnoses all over the world. Dr. Lord completed degrees in psychology at UCLA and Harvard, and a clinical internship at Division TEACCH at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Lord’s work at the Center for Autism and the Developing Brain involves continued research in validity and longitudinal studies, early diagnosis of children with autism, and regression in children with autism and clinical evaluations and diagnoses of children and adults who may have autism. |
Anonymous
Ok, this is my last response to you; your anger clouds your reading comprehension, and your posts are not worth engaging. Nowhere did I say all ASD kids smear feces! But for the benefit of other posters here are a couple of cases of adults initially diagnosed with severe autism, who are now "cured" (for the purposes of my post, I use "cured" to mean they are well-adjusted, self-sufficient, living independent lives as productive members of the society.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6-PwVuYy2Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1HQKB2txgY |
Anonymous
Because she's pissed she spent all the time and money and her career and wasn't able to cure her child. So it's easier to say it can't be done than to acknowledge it may indeed happen for some kids. She's in such a bitter place she can't recognize this might be a steppingstone for all autistic kids. |
Anonymous
Did you view the entire second link? Dr. Copland clearly states that just because many symptoms disappear does not mean the child is cured of ASD. In merely 15% of cases, symptoms do disappear but the child is not cured. |
Anonymous
I feel sorry for you because you're hanging onto false hope. After all is said and done, you may realize that this article gave unrealistic hope to the many, many parents whose children did not lose their ASD dx. In the Dr. Copland link provided by the other pp, the only children that make significant progress and lose most of their symptoms are those that have above average IQ, and even then Dr. Copland clearly stated, they do not "lose" their dx. These are a mere 15% of PDD/Aspergers children. Dr. Copland said these 15% will lose their symptoms regardless of therapy. So if your child has an IQ of 100 or over, hang onto that hope that maybe, just maybe, he will lose many of his symptoms. But what if your child doesn't have an IQ over 100? Do you still want to encourage parents to hang onto that hope? Shame on you. Parents whose children have ASD with an IQ of below 100 should not cling to the hope that their child's symptoms will merely disappear. They need to get their children into an early intervention program as early as age 1. I have absolutely ZERO regrets about giving up my career for my child. I would do it again a hundred times over. I'm not bitter at all. If anything, many clinicians would say my child is one of those in that 15% group, but I know my child and know he was always very mildly affected to begin with. My child is highly gifted. But treatments did not make him lose those mild symptoms, they simply manifested themselves differently as he grew older. He is not cured and may never be. He's different and will always be different. His has used his intelligence to cope better, that's all. However, he will need help for many years. |
Anonymous
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It is a spectrum so there is a grey area where some symptoms still exist but the patient no longer qualifies for an ASD diagnosis.
It was explained after our ADOS testing and scoring that our child "just" made it into an ASD diagnosis. (And before the crazy MERLD person comes after me about how ADOS does not work evaluating kids with language delays - my kid has no language delays). But the bright line between an ASD diagnosis and "not ASD" has to be drawn somewhere. So it's not surpring that some kids make it over to the non-ASD side. Is it a "cure"? Guess it depends on what you mean by that... Just b/c a person no longer qualifies for ASD does not mean that they are completely NT (and some ASD traits make for talent in many areas so you may want a little ASD anyway) but it does not mean they are "autistic" either. |
Anonymous
In reading your response, it's easy to see why the one couple moved, kept their child anonymous in the story and they never tell anyone their child ever had autism. Once that label is on, everything is seen through that prism. |
Anonymous
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Interesting info from the reporter:
http://6thfloor.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/08/04/behind-the-cover-story-ruth-padawer-on-autistic-children-who-shed-their-symptoms/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0 In the article, you mention supposed cures for autism that have been promoted on the Internet — including vitamin shots, nutritional supplements and special diets. What convinced the scientists, and you, that this was different? "Well, claims that these treatments can “cure” autism or its core symptoms have not been substantiated by rigorous scientific investigations. Perhaps some of these treatments help with secondary symptoms; for example, children with autism may be more troubled by gastrointestinal problems, and maybe some of the alternative approaches help with that. And when someone feels better physically, they’re likely more able to function in other ways, too. But there’s no evidence yet that those alternative approaches treat autism’s core symptoms, the ones defined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders as the basis for the diagnosis. Fein’s study didn’t closely examine those alternative treatments, but to the extent she looked at them, she found no association between the use of those alternative treatments and the likelihood of losing autism symptoms. Kids who lost their autism symptoms weren’t any more likely to have used supplements than kids who remained autistic, and frankly, they were less likely to have tried special diets. In other words it seems the treatments don’t correlate with the loss of autism symptoms. By comparison, children who stopped being autistic were far more likely to have received early behavioral therapy than those who remained autistic. Remember, however, that these are just correlations, not proven causalities. This study wasn’t designed to draw conclusions about causality." |
Anonymous
Yes, I've read it. He has a full explanation here: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/making-sense-autistic-spectrum-disorders/201008/017-losing-the-asd-diagnosis-does-not-equal-cur Quit moving the goal line. First you say that no kid with an autism spectrum disorder can lose their DX. According to you, if they do they were misdiagnosed. Now you say "Well, if they lose their DX, they are still not cured because they have residual symptoms." |
Anonymous
Nice straw man. No one on this thread has made that claim. |