Autism Disorders Due to Drugs

NVIC E-news

AAP Urges Early Autism Diagnosis, Then Drugs Often Used

by Barbara Loe Fisher

America’s pediatricians, who cannot explain to American parents why so many
of their young, highly vaccinated children are developing autism and other
developmental disabilities, announced this week at a conference in San
Francisco that it is time for doctors to get serious about diagnosing
autism early and often.
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1677611,00.html?xid=feed-yahoo-healthsci

This push for “early diagnosis” before age two is coupled with a push for
“early intervention.” Currently that intervention involves doctors
prescribing psychiatric drugs for 80 percent of the children diagnosed with
autism or Asperger disorder according to a report released at the same
conference.
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/565002

Although few parents would argue that it is important to recognize when a
child is regressing physically, mentally and emotionally into autism, many
parents are more interested in addressing the biological root causes for
the kinds of brain and immune system dysfunction that their autistic
children are exhibiting, rather than giving their children psychotropic
drugs that only suppress the symptoms. Many parents, like Cindy Goldenberg
in the early 1990’s and Jenny McCarthy a decade later, have found that
eliminating gluten and casein from their child’s diet and employing other
alternative therapies to repair healthy immune function, can effectively
address vaccine-related biological causes for autism and greatly improve
their children’s health.

However, currently mainstream American pediatricians are overwhelmingly
attempting to deal with the autism explosion by drugging children. Tobias
Gerhard, PhD, assistant professor at the Rutgers University Institute for
Health, Health Care Policy, and Aging Research acknowledged that the
prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorders increased 10-fold in the last
decade and presented an analysis of medical care surveys reflecting two
million health visits involving autism or Asperger disorder. He found that
children were overwhelmingly male and white and that disruptive behavioral
disorders were involved with 3 of every 10 cases.

The surveys revealed that about 80% of children diagnosed with Autism
Spectrum Disorder are treated with at least one psychiatic drug; 30% are
given antipsychotic drugs, 40% antidepressants, 40% stimulants and about
30% some other drug, including mood stabilizers and anticonvulsants. Some
children are prescribed several medications. “As with many psychiatric
conditions in children, we really know very little [about] how these drugs
actually work and how they should be used in practice,” Dr. Gerhard said.

In Canada, where there is a nationalized health care system and long
waiting lines for a doctor’s appointment, there is a warning by Canadian
pediatricians that early screening and treatment for autism is easier said
than done. The former president of the Canadian Pediatric Society, Emmet
Francoeur, points out that increased screening would involve an increase in
the number of evaluation teams and treatment services, all of which is time
consuming and expensive. He says “Unfortunately, unlike a broken bone or
pneumonia, where you can take an x-ray and come up with a diagnosis, it
takes multiple observers looking at multiple aspects of a child’s
development to diagnose autism.”
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20071030.wautism30/BNStory/specialScienceandHealth/home

As hard as it is for pediatricians to figure out how they are going to
identify and treat lots of highly vaccinated autistic children, it is much
harder for parents searching for answers for why their once healthy
children developed autism and how to help them heal. The diagnostic
screening tests, the visits to different doctors specializing in different
parts of the body and the drug and behavioral therapies that may or may not
work, can bankrupt the average middle class family.

One day, the educational and health care costs associated with the biggest
epidemic our nation has ever experienced – the chronic disease and
disability epidemic – may bankrupt our nation. It is a chronic illness
epidemic that makes the polio epidemic of the 1950’s look small by
comparison. We are all paying a very high price for the failure of
pediatricians, drug companies and government health officials to act
responsibly in the 1980’s when parents of DPT vaccine injured children
pleaded with them to conduct methodologically sound scientific studies to
investigate the biological mechanisms and genetic factors involved in
vaccine-induced regression and neuroimmune dysfunction.

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1677611,00.html?xid=feed-yahoo-healthsci

Finding – and Fighting – Autism Early

TIME Magazine
October 30, 2007

by Claudia Wallis

From the earliest months, a healthy baby engages in an astonishing range of
social behaviors. Most will begin smiling back at a loved one in the first
four months of life. Most will follow a parent’s gaze with their own eyes
by eight months. Most will also study a caregiver’s facial expressions and
mimic exhibits of fear, surprise or delight with their own tiny features.
They will babble a conversation back and forth by nine months, respond to
their names by 10 months, and begin to point to a desired toy or treat by
around a year.

But some babies won’t do these things, and a pattern of such deficits can
be an early sign of autism. Despite these and many other early tip-offs,
autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are rarely diagnosed before age 3. More
subtle forms, such as Asperger’s Syndrome, may not be recognized until the
child begins school.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) would like to change this. At its
annual meeting, held in San Francisco on Monday, the AAP released two
reports: one aimed at helping pediatricians recognize autism spectrum
disorders – in all their varieties – by age 2 and the other at providing
guidance for early intervention. At the same time the AAP formally
recommended that all pediatricians routinely screen for autism at ages 18
months and 2 years and announced it was making a new “toolkit” of
diagnostic information available to all its members – for about $70.

The announcements came in response to a growing consensus that autism can
be picked up very early in life and that early intervention holds the best
promise for helping affected children. It is also an admission that,
despite an explosion of news on autism in recent years, pediatricians are
not currently doing an optimal job of identifying the spectrum of
conditions now believed to affect as many as 1 in 150 children. A 2004
survey of primary care pediatricians found, for instance, that only 8% were
routinely screening for autism, even though 44% said they saw at least 10
kids with autism in their practice.

The AAP had already recommended routine screening for autism in 2006, but
the new recommendations are more specific and backed by more information
for practitioners. Two screenings are needed – one at 18 months and one at
24 months, explains Dr. Scott Meyers, who authored one of the reports,
because about a quarter of children with ASD appear to develop normally at
first and then regress – losing early language and social behavior -
sometime between 15 and 24 months.

Meyers, a neurodevelopmental pediatrician with Geisinger Health System in
Danville, Pa., wrote the AAP’s new survey of research on managing the care
of children with autism. His report supports intensive behavioral and
speech therapy – at least 25 hours a week – beginning as early as possible.
But, he concedes, there’s a lack of rigorous, randomized research on what
interventions work best. The report encourages pediatricians not to condemn
parents who turn to alternative therapies, but to help guide them toward
the safest and best researched approaches. “Don’t just dismiss it out of
hand,” says Meyers, “It’s important to keep communication open and respect
the fact that parents are going to be looking of answers.”

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/565002 (requires registration but it is
free)

Physicians Rely on Psychiatric Drugs to Treat Autism Spectrum Disorders

Medscape
October 29, 2007

by James Brice

(San Francisco) – An observational study of physician prescription patterns
indicates that 80% of children diagnosed with autism or Asperger disorder
are treated with at least 1 psychiatric drug.

Results presented here at the American Academy of Pediatrics 2007 National
Conference and Exhibition reflect the medical community’s initial
therapeutic response to the growing prevalence of autism spectrum disorders
(ASD) including autism and the generally less debilitating Asperger
disorder. An estimated 1 child in 150 in the United States and United
Kingdom is affected by ASD, according to Tobias Gerhard, PhD, assistant
professor at the Rutgers University Institute for Health, Health Care
Policy, and Aging Research.

The degree of impairment associated with both conditions is highly
variable. Their etiologies are unknown, though the prevalence of ASD has
increased 10-fold in the last decade, Dr. Gerhard said.

Treatment typically includes behavioral, educational, and pharmacologic
components. A lack of understanding about the characteristic use of
medications to treatment ASD led Dr. Gerhard to sift through data from the
National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey and the National Hospital
Ambulatory Medical Care Survey for answers. In combination, he said, they
reflect the experience of 2 million visits involving autism or Asperger
disorder annually.

Data from 2002 to 2005 revealed variations, though no statistically
significant differences, in the demographics of autism and Asperger
disorder patients. The average age of an autism patient was 9.7 years,
compared with 11.1 years for an Asperger patient. Patients were
overwhelmingly male and white. The presence of psychiatric comorbidities
for autism and Asperger disorder were 36% and 44.4%, respectively.
Disruptive behavioral disorders were involved with 3 of every 10 cases for
each condition, Gerhard said.

About 80% of children diagnosed with ASD were treated with at least 1
psychiatric drug. About 30% of patients were prescribed antipsychotic
drugs, 40% antidepressants, 40% stimulants, and about 30% some other class
of drug including mood stabilizers and anticonvulsants. Some patients are
treated with several medications.

Physicians tended to prescribe psychoactive drugs more often for Asperger
disorder than autism (89% vs 64%). Differences in the treatment pattern
were especially evident for the prescription of stimulants. About 57% of
Asperger patients were prescribed stimulants compared with 20% of Autism
patients.

However, these results apply to the prescription pattern before US Food and
Drug Administration approval of the antipsychotic drug risperidone in 2006.

Session moderator George W. Rutherford, MD, professor of epidemiology at
the University of California, San Francisco, told Medscape Pediatrics that
the data suggest an evolution toward a de facto standard for treating ASD.

“If you are looking to see what your colleagues are doing, there is a
tendency to treat a large portion of these patients with psychotropic
drugs,” he said in an interview.

The findings suggest to Dr. Gerhard that more research is needed to
determine whether the drug prescription pattern reflects the clinical
efficacy of the agents or an effort to placate parents who demand
aggressive treatment.

“As with many psychiatric conditions in children, we really know very
little [about] how these drugs actually work and how they should be used in
practice,” Dr. Gerhard said. “This is really a first step in research that
should ultimately motivate more research.”

American Academy of Pediatrics 2007 National Conference and Exhibition.
Presented October 28, 2007.

www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20071030.wautism30/BNStory/specialScienceandHealth/home
Autism groups support earlier screening

Globe & Mail
October 30, 2007

by Unnati Gandhi

Canadian autism groups are putting their weight behind an American call for
universal screening for the disorder, but pediatricians here are wary of
the realistic benefits of doing so.

The split comes as the American Academy of Pediatrics at its annual meeting
in San Francisco yesterday made its strongest push to date to screen every
child twice for autism by the age of 2, warning of symptoms such as failure
to babble at nine months and one-year-olds who don’t point to toys.

The advice is meant to help both parents and doctors spot the disorder
sooner. And while there is no cure, experts say that early therapy can
lessen its severity.

“Absolutely, we need a screening procedure in place,” said Margaret
Spoelstra, executive director of Autism Ontario, adding there is currently
no standard screening practice in place in Canada. “To screen means that
we’re simply casting the net more widely in order to determine who might
have autism out there. For us, it’s better to have some false positives
than to miss kids.”

But too many false positives is precisely where the problem lies in
practice, according to a leading Montreal pediatrician, because that would
overload a system that is already strained.

Going from a screening to therapy requires a multidisciplinary team of
specialists who can properly diagnose the disorder, said Emmett Francoeur,
director of the child development program at the Montreal Children’s
Hospital and former president of the Canadian Paediatric Society.

But the waiting list for such an evaluation is as long as a year in some
parts of Canada.

“We know that the earlier you diagnose them, the better the outcome. That
we’re pretty sure of,” he said last night. “Unfortunately, unlike a broken
bone or pneumonia, where you can take an X-ray and come up with a
diagnosis, it takes multiple observers looking at multiple aspects of a
child’s development to diagnose autism.”

So, he said, if screening were to be increased, that would mean an increase
in the number of evaluation teams and the amount of services for treatment
- all of which are not currently feasible.

“Should all of this be done? I think so, if you’re talking about the moral
aspects of trying to help every possible child who has autism,” Dr.
Francoeur said. “Can it be done? It’s a really tough question because the
governments have to decide where to put all their money.”

As for screening, Dr. Francoeur stressed that there are several methods
that are used, but only a few are accurate enough to warrant widespread
promotion.

The two American Academy of Pediatrics reports, which will appear in the
November issue of the journal Pediatrics, list numerous warning signs, such
as a four-month-old not smiling at the sound of mom or dad’s voice, or the
loss of language or social skills at any age.

The academy’s renewed effort reflects growing awareness since its first
autism guidelines in 2001. A 2006 policy statement urged autism screening
for all children at their regular doctor visits at 18 months and 24 months.

The authors caution that not all children who display a few of these
symptoms are autistic and they said parents shouldn’t overreact to quirky
behaviour.

The new reports say children with suspected autism should start treatment
even before a formal diagnosis. They also warn parents about the special
diets and alternative treatments endorsed by celebrities, saying there’s no
proof that those work.

With a report from Associated Press
***********************************************************
National Vaccine Information Center
email: news@nvic.org
voice: 703-938-dpt3
web: http://www.nvic.org

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NVIC is funded through the financial support of its members and does not
receive any government subsidies. Barbara Loe Fisher, President and Co-
founder.

Learn more about vaccines, diseases and how to protect your informed
consent rights at www.nvic.org

——————————————————–
Sheri Nakken, former R.N., MA, Hahnemannian Homeopath
Vaccination Information & Choice Network, Nevada City CA & Wales UK
Vaccines – http://www.wellwithin1.com/vaccine.htm
Email classes start in November