Barrier in battle to ease son's pain

Autistic boy's parents cannot find anyone to do physical tests, writes VICKY COLLINS

HE may not have the communication skills to explain what is wrong, but Karen McGoldrick knows her son is in pain.

It is seven years since Patrick first began developing the symptoms of autism and Mrs McGoldrick has yet to find anyone in the medical establishment who will investigate her son's physical complaints, instead of his behavioural patterns.

"I had seen Patrick develop normally until nearly two years old," she said. "He had gone through all the development checks and he could speak, but then it all became gobbledegook.

"He would just start screaming and he became totally withdrawn. It was frightening. He was seven years old before he was finally diagnosed with autism.

"Patrick can be quite a loving child, but sometimes he gets quite aggressive and I think that is often because he is in pain. I have always said there is something physically wrong."

Research released yesterday by Gordon Bell, of Stirling University, is the first suggestion that her conviction could be right.

In tests on children with autism, the related Asperger's syndrome, and non-autistic children, Dr Bell found those with autism had significantly higher levels of three immune-suppressing toxins than the other children.

He believes that the bodies of autistic children may not be capable of excreting these toxins effectively, leading to the build-up.

Mrs McGoldrick, from Johnstone, near Paisley, does not know whether Patrick has problems with toxin build-up because, like the majority of autistic children, he has never been tested. He does, however, suffer from severe constipation.

Mrs McGoldrick also does not know whether there is any connection between his condition and the MMR vaccine he received nine months before the symptoms developed.

"He has got a lot of problems with his bowels and we have been asking for a referral to a gastro-enterologist, but we haven't got one yet.

"My sole concern is that I see a child in pain, but they won't do the tests on him. I have even been told not to bring Patrick to consultations because he is too distracting."

Mrs McGoldrick, 36, is one of almost 2000 parents in Scotland whose children suffer from autism. There is a widespread belief the condition is linked to the triple MMR vaccine.

Like many of those parents, not only has Mrs McGoldrick lost the normal, healthy son of seven years ago, she is battling against an apparent reluctance to investigate the causes of autism, and the possible cures.

Government advisers have declared MMR vaccine officially safe.

This is despite the uproar caused by Andrew Wakefield in 1998, a reader in experimental gastro-enterology at the Royal Free Hospital, London, when he suggested that the MMR vaccine might be linked to an increased risk of autism and bowel disorders. He believed that MMR may overload the immune system.

However, Dr Bell believes that if MMR is linked, it is as a trigger, not a cause. The toxins he found in high levels in autism sufferers suppress the immune system, which then may not be able to cope with the triple vaccine.

Despite the Department of Health's reassurances on MMR, many parents have chosen not to use it, opting for single vaccines.

In some areas of Britain reported take-up of MMR dipped below 50% this year. According to the World Health Organisation, 95% of the population need to be vaccinated for an immunisation programme to be effective.

For parents like Mrs McGoldrick, and her husband, also Patrick, the choice is clear-cut. She is expecting her third child - her youngest son has not developed autism - and says they have no intention of giving the new baby a MMR jab. She, like many of the families affected by autism in the past four years, wants to see more research into the causes of autism before she will accept any government reassurances on MMR.

That includes acceptance that autism may not solely be a genetic, psychiatric disorder and investigations into the physical conditions that could worsen the symptoms or even cause the condition. Mrs McGoldrick welcomed the research done by Dr Bell but said it was time that mainstream medical research organisations stopped leaving it to the families to investigate the disease.

"I think a medical investigation has to be done on individual children. People perceive autism as a mental illness, but there is so much more to it than that," she said.

Last February, the Department of Health announced £2.5m would be put aside for research into autism.

The Medical Research Council (MRC) is currently considering how to distribute the money, although it has emphasised that the studies will look beyond the alleged link with the MMR vaccine to investigate genetic data and environmental risks.

The latter includes toxins and Dr Bell hopes his research could encourage the MRC to invest cash in a similar study on a larger scale. If that is the case, the Department of Health may find that MMR is implicated after all.

-July 22nd