FEAT DAILY NEWSLETTER
Sacramento, California http://www.feat.org
December 9, 2001
News Morgue Search www.feat.org/search/news.asp
·
Studies Fail To Disprove Autism Link To MMR Jab
·
Evidence-Based Medicine
·
Autistic Comedian Is A Turn For The Better
·
Mother Finds Mission As Autism Advocate
·
Better To Give Than To Receive
[By Lorraine Fraser in today’s Sunday London Times.] http://www.portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2001%2F12%2F09%2Fnjab09.xml
A report commissioned by the [British] Government has
concluded that the possibility of MMR vaccination causing autism in susceptible
children cannot be ruled out on the current evidence.
The review, from the Medical Research Council, will say
the theory that the triple measles, mumps and rubella jab is to blame in some
autistic children has not been proved scientifically.
However, it will add that epidemiological studies so far
of MMR have been too imprecise to rule out the prospect of the vaccination
being involved in a small number of cases.
The findings, to be made public next week, will create
difficulties for Alan Milburn, the Health Secretary, who asked the MRC last
March to look at all available evidence on the causes of autism and identify
any gaps in present knowledge.
His officials at the Department of Health have heavily
publicised studies that failed to link MMR and autism in their attempts to
convince parents there is no risk.
The MRC’s report comes after The Telegraph revealed how
the doctor who first voiced fears about the safety of MMR, Dr Andrew Wakefield,
has been forced out of his job at the Royal Free and University College Medical
School in London.
Dr Wakefield claims to have identified nearly 200 children
with a new combination of bowel disease and autism and has pledged to continue
his efforts to find out whether their double illness has been triggered by the childhood
injection. He disclosed last weekend that his university employers had asked
him to leave because his research was unwelcome.
The Department of Health insists parents have no need for
concern over the safety of MMR (recommended for babies and four-year-olds) and
officials have accused Dr Wakefield of needlessly damaging parents’ confidence
in the vaccination, leaving children at risk of the illnesses.
However, the report of the MRC Review Group, headed by Eve
Johnstone, professor of psychiatry at the University of Edinburgh, will raise
new questions as to why the doctor has been ostracised by the medical establishment.
While it offers no support for Dr Wakefield’s theory that
measles virus from the MMR vaccine may colonise the gut of susceptible children
and cause bowel effects which result in a chemical imbalance, leading to
autism, The Telegraph understands the report will nevertheless make clear that
more research is needed before the hypothesis can be either confirmed or
refuted.
The document, which has been sent to the Department of
Health prior to publication, is expected to argue that the cause of autism may
differ between individuals, and future research must try to take account of
factors such as genetics, environmental exposures before and after birth, infections,
and the development of the child’s immune system.
In particular, it will take issue with a Finnish study of
three million children which has been widely reported as proof that MMR does
not cause bowel disease or autism.
The MRC conclusions agree with a report from the Institute
of Medicine in the US, which backed the use of MMR but also said research so
far could not exclude the possibility that MMR may be damaging some youngsters.
Dr Timothy Buie, a specialist at Harvard General Hospital,
has also announced that he found inflammation of the bowel identical to that described
by Dr Wakefield in 15 of 89 autistic children seen at his Massachusetts clinic.
He said: “These children are ill, in distress and pain,
and not just mentally, neurologically, dysfunctional.”
Dr Wakefield’s departure from the Royal Free Hospital has
devastated parents of children involved in his studies, who are demanding
assurances that their youngsters will continue to be looked after by the north
London hospital.
Dr Wakefield agreed to stand down after a two-year
struggle to stay in his post, hoping that this would relieve the “political
pressure” on clinical colleagues responsible for day-to-day care of the sick
children.
Paediatric gastroenterologists at the Hampstead hospital
have developed considerable expertise in relieving the children’s bowel pain
and related symptoms, but some sick children are having to wait up to 18 months
to be seen.
Last week angry families established a lobby group, Autism
Research Campaign for Health (ARCH), to push for greater recognition of their children’s
problems.
* * *
“Some experts estimate that only 20 percent of
medical practices are based on rigorous research evidence.”
[ By Jack Hitt.]
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/09/magazine/09MEDICINE.html
When visiting our family doctor, most of us feel secure in
the belief that modern science has purged medicine of such practices as cupping
and bloodletting. But according to a recent article in the journal Patient
Care, “Some experts estimate that only 20 percent of medical practices are
based on rigorous research evidence.” The rest are based on what has been published
in books repeatedly without independent testing – or what doctors have always
said should work. In other words, it’s a kind of folklore.
A revolution is erupting in the wards of practical
medicine these days, one defined recently by The British Medical Journal as “the
conscientious, explicit and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions
about the care of individual patients.” The revolution is called evidence-based
medicine, or E.B.M., and many traditional treatments are being run through the
machinery of the scientific method – and being found wanting.
One common E.B.M. approach is meta-analysis: collating
data from far-flung studies to come up with a definitive answer to a medical
question. Such studies are overthrowing
some conventional wisdom. Mammogram screenings? They don’t save lives. Remember
the placebo effect? It doesn’t exist. E.B.M. is also credited with validating
some simple cures. Most people know that if you have a heart attack, you should
immediately take an aspirin. Thank an E.B.M. study for proving that this works.
After colds, the second-most-common reason for a visit to
the doctor is lower-back pain. The “treatment” has always been bed rest. Why?
Because, as a recent article explained, “The notion that rest is therapeutic
and will relieve pain dates back to Hippocrates.” But now that E.B.M. studies
have used science instead of oral tradition to test this notion, they have
found that bed rest “may delay return to functional status.” What works better? Light exercise and getting back on your
feet. This past June, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality integrated
the no-bed-rest approach into its guidelines. This new standard of care, which
will probably save billions of dollars in unnecessary sick leave, marks the end
of 2,400 years of misguided treatment.
E.B.M. is yet another idea that can be credited to the
computer revolution. Doctors have long known that they learn very little after
med school when their exhausting schedules and the baffling profusion of 4,000 monthly
professional journals make it nearly impossible to keep up with innovations in
treatment. The E.B.M. movement began when six doctors in Canada came up with
the idea of skimming the most dependable studies and crunching the results into
an accessible, reliable database.
Indeed, in the wake of E.B.M., journals are filling with
terms that sound almost anthropological to describe longstanding treatments: “local
custom,” “witch-doctoring,” “myth.” Or as one article this fall put it, “This
process of examining beliefs that have been based primarily on teaching and
empirical experience rather than evidence has been compared to stripping the
curtain away from the Wizard of Oz to reveal an ordinary man.
>> DO SOMETHING ABOUT AUTISM NOW <<
Subscribe, Read, then Forward the FEAT Daily
Newsletter.
To Subscribe go to www.feat.org/FEATnews
No Cost!
* * *
Autistic Comedian Is A Turn For The Better
[By Helen Rumbelow.]
Sport http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,2-2001563416,00.html
A young woman from Essex who suffers from a form of autism
has broken new ground by having a comic play performed professionally.
Most comedians draw on a fund of unhappy childhood
experiences, but Nita Jackson’s condition, Asperger’s syndrome, meant that she
grew up with such continual and violent bullying that she was on the verge of
suicide.
Help from the National Autistic Society (NAS) was the
first step to saving her life, Nita, 18, said. The Times Christmas Appeal is
aiming to raise money which the NAS needs to help more than a tiny fraction of children
with autism. Diagnosis and support allowed Nita’s talent to flourish: her
autobiographical novel is to be published in the new year after her sell-out
run at the Brentwood Theatre in Essex two weeks ago. Instead of considering herself “a freak and a weirdo”, she can
now poke fun at the curious ways of the “mainstreamers” or “neurotypicals”
without her condition.
Nita was fortunate because the NAS has the funds to help
only 120 youngsters with autism to find work. For many of the hundreds of
thousands of people like Nita with Asperger’s, there is no hope of a productive
life and their usually high intelligence is wasted.
“I knew something was wrong from the first moment because
I remember
an all-encompassing fear of the world, I was scared of
everything and
everyone,”
she said at her home in Ilford, East London. “While the
other kids found solace in friendship, I was coming home to my mum, saying,
‘How do I make friends?’ ” Nita had characteristics that are typical of
Asperger’s, such as having to climb the school steps in ten seconds, or
colour-coding all her possessions, which earnt her ridicule. By the time she
was 14, she had changed school three times and the stress of isolation had
reached breaking point.
She said: “I thought I was insane. I seriously thought I
should be locked up, and the bullying had become so bad that I couldn’t go into
school any more.
They would hold a knife to my throat, singe my hair,
attack me with Bunsen burners.”
Her mother, Carolann, said that at the end of one call to
the NAS helpline, she knew what was wrong. “The NAS have been brilliant because
there is no statutory provision for Asperger’s — it’s like it doesn’t exist,”
she said.
With support from the NAS, Nita performed well in her
GCSEs and A levels and went on to do work experience with the scriptwriters’
workshop at the BBC.
The charity also arranged work experience at the Brentwood
Theatre where a producer heard about her writing and agreed to stage her first
play, Detained. In the new year her book Standing Down, Falling Up will be published.
Copyright 2001 Times Newspapers Ltd.
* * *
Mother Finds Mission As Autism Advocate
. . . to carry the Olympic torch
[By Glenn Miller, gmiller@news-press.com.]
http://www.news-press.com/news/today/011207torchharris.html
Heather Harris received the news about her son’s autism
when James Patrick was 2 ½.
“They said he’d probably be mentally retarded and there
was not a good chance of him speaking and not to expect a lot,” Harris said.
“I completely refused to acknowledge that as true. I went
around the area and found a lot of people in the area who had done a lot with
autism already. And so I found people who had been there and pooled all the information.”
James Patrick is now 7 and a first-grader at Hancock Creek
Elementary School.
Harris’ friend Pam Few nominated her to carry the
Olympic torch.
Lauderdale. Her husband, James, 31, will be there.
For Few, Harris’ refusal to allow autism to define James
Patrick is inspirational.
“It was really difficult to accept it and for her to deal
with it but they did,” Few said. “She’s worked quite extensively with the
autism society. She’s gone to Tallahassee for legislation to get autism
educators into schools. It’s been really hard for her to have a child that is
hard to communicate with. With her constant diligence and working for autism
and the plight of autistics, James Patrick has just blossomed. He’s in regular classrooms.
He’s communicative. You can talk to him and he responds.
“A lot of autistic children don’t. They don’t have any
depth or dimension to their thought process or communicative abilities. James
Patrick has blossomed because of Heather’s diligence and working with him.
She’s an amazing person.”
Harris is a voracious reader of novels, biographies
and histories.
“This girl is constantly cheerful,” Few said. “She’s
amazing. She is
the most thoughtful person I’ve ever met and the most giving
person I’ve ever met. She never dwells on the negative. I think she’s a pillar
of what the torchbearer should stand for.”
Harris and her husband are both Navy veterans. They met
when they were stationed in the Philippines. They also have a 1 ½-year-old son,
Hank.
Harris is stunned she’ll carry the torch. “I’m not
worthy,” she said.
She believes the honor is more about others.
“That I have a wonderful family and friends,” Harris. “I’ve
been lucky to pick really good people to be around. I’m honored and surprised.”
* * *
[By Sarah Payton, Indiana Daily Student, Indiana U.]
http://news.excite.com/news/uw/011207/university-128
Bloomington, Ind. U-Wire - Mary is 19 years old. Battling
autism, her mental capabilities are that of a 6-year-old. She is stuck in the second
grade, where she has been for the past two years. I try to show her how to put
together the same pattern of blocks over and over again, and as she does her
very best we start to talk about Christmas.
I ask her what she wants from Santa and after only moments
of deliberation she announces with an innocent grin that all she wants for Christmas
is for me to get all the presents I want for Christmas.
She already has her robotic dog and she would rather that
I get a new car, the one that I showed her in the magazine at lunchtime.
With the mentality of someone a third my age, Mary smiles
at me with an innocence I haven’t had in years. She reminds me of the real
message behind the holiday season.
This was four years ago, and not much has changed in the
way I view the holidays since my meeting with Mary. Although I try to have the Christmas
spirit, so much of my true spirit is consumed with arguing with my mom about
the price of a David Yurman bracelet that I just have to have.
On the heels of Sept. 11 you’d think as a nation we would
all turn to giving rather than receiving... if only it were so simple.
A society of consumers who need and want and just
have-to-have, even a national tragedy can’t shake most of us from the mindset
that we must have the best presents under the tree or beside the menorah.
Less than two hours ago I sent my mom an updated list of
what I wanted with no intention of donating a portion of the money that she
will spend to a family in New York or the local Red Cross or United Way.
This mentality carries over into other aspects of life as
well. Listening to a guest speaker from
the Opportunity House (a local Goodwill organization) in a journalism class, I
realized how sick it is when I take clothes to Plato’s Closet for $10 for five
pairs of Gap jeans when I could donate it all to an organization that has
people who depend upon it. Is the $10 really that important to me? The answer
to that is: it can’t be.
There is more to life than having a new leather jacket or
an X Box. There are families without
fathers, mothers, sisters and brothers on this holiday and now is the time to
donate in remembrance of those lost.
It doesn’t matter if you are a poor college student like I
am, with thousands of credit card bills, give what you can, how you can. If you
can’t donate money, donate time or a service; this is just as valuable. Spend a
few hours at a local shelter; realize how stupid it is for you to complain about
only getting two little blue boxes from Tiffany’s this year.
If there is no other time you ever give, give now. It is
only, afterall, when you truly give that you can receive.
And receive you will, a thousand times over.
© 2001 Indiana Daily Student via U-WIRE
To Help Save a Lifetime, Children With Autism
Need A Loud Voice For
• Advocacy,
• Awareness,
• Research,
• Education,
• Treatment and
Care
• . . . and Hope
The FEAT Newsletter Threads the Autism
Community Together into a Strong,
Undeniable Voice for Change
Day After Day.
Support one of Our Most Effective
Assets in This Compelling Cause
BECOME AN AUTISM ANGEL
Send a check to FEAT:
PO Box 255722
Sacramento CA 95865 Or Send your United Way Contributions to FEAT: Put
16106 on your workplace donor 501 ©(3) tax exempt number: 68-0287252 FEAT is an
all Volunteer, Parent org.
Lenny Schafer, Editor@feat.org • CALENDAR EVENTS@feat.org
Michelle Guppy
Catherine Johnson PhD
• Ron Sleith •
Kay Stammers • Edward Decelie
UNSUBSCRIBE: FEATNews-signoff-request@LIST.FEAT.ORG
ALL
INFORMATION, DATA, AND MATERIAL CONTAINED, PRESENTED, OR PROVIDED HERE IS FOR
GENERAL INFORMATION PURPOSES ONLY AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED AS REFLECTING THE
KNOWLEDGE OR OPINIONS OF THE PUBLISHER, AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED OR INTENDED
AS PROVIDING MEDICAL OR LEGAL ADVICE. THE DECISION WHETHER OR NOT TO
VACCINATE IS AN IMPORTANT AND COMPLEX ISSUE AND SHOULD BE MADE BY YOU, AND YOU
ALONE, IN CONSULTATION WITH YOUR HEALTH CARE PROVIDER.