Reply to The Kids Who Beat Autism: New York Times

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Reply to "The Kids Who Beat Autism: New York Times"

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[quote=Anonymous]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."[/quote]

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