proofonline.org » Autism

Watch ‘FRONTLINE: The Medicated Child’

Douglas Faneuil — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 19:15:00 +0000

This is an astonishing video – not to be missed by anyone who cares about psychiatric diagnoses in children.

I pride myself in keeping an open mind about mental illness, but I have to admit that it’s tough to watch this video without feeling a pang of conservative rage. Where are we going with all of this? Are we so desperate and starry-eyed that we’re willing to experiment on our own children?? Don’t they deserve a more cautious approach?!??!?!

I’m not quick to judge any of the parents. My heart goes out to them. I’ve never had a kid, let alone one with mental illness. But I do know something of the helplessness that surrounds families in the midst of these crises. It’s a God-awful experience – and a dangerous one, too. Feelings of abject helplessness lead to extreme vulnerability. And that’s exactly what you see in this video: vulnerable families being pressured into troubling treatment, all at the behest of powerful institutions with their own interests to weigh. I’m not skeptical of doctors or “experts” (that’s a strain of American fundamentalism I could live without), but at the same time we have to recognize our respective roles. A child’s care is the sole responsibility of his or her parents. The educational system and the health care industry, despite what they advertise, were not designed to care for any particular child. Those institutions have competing priorities (the profit initiative, organizational flow, etc.), including millions of other kids. What is good for a school or a doctor’s office might be at odds with what is good for a child. When it comes to medicating our youth, we should be especially vigilant about these conflicts of interest, and wise to how good people’s judgment can go bad.

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[Note the segment tiles above the video display; to watch the whole program, click on each segment.]

Homespun Treatment for Autism Offers One Family Hope

Douglas Faneuil — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 17:37:45 +0000

(via Daily Dish)

[A poignant piece – and it raises some of the toughest questions regarding care: How do we strike a proper balance between the patient's well-being and our own, as caretakers? How can we dispassionately assess improvements when patients have trouble communicating? Who do we trust when the medical community and families are at odds? Finally, why are there so few answers for autism??? Clearly this family was grasping at straws. I wish them well. -Ed.]

Novel Theory of Mental Disorders Pits Parents’ Genes in Conflict

Douglas Faneuil — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 18:58:49 +0000

At a time when the search for the genetic glitches behind brain disorders has become mired in uncertain and complex findings, the new idea provides psychiatry with perhaps its grandest working theory since Freud, and one that is grounded in work at the forefront of science. Dr. Crespi and Dr. Badcock propose that an evolutionary tug of war between genes from the father’s sperm and the mother’s egg can, in effect, tip brain development in one of two ways. A strong bias toward the father pushes a developing brain along the autistic spectrum, toward a fascination with objects, patterns, mechanical systems, at the expense of social development. A bias toward the mother moves the growing brain along what the researchers call the psychotic spectrum, toward hypersensitivity to mood, their own and others’. This, according to the theory, increases a child’s risk of developing schizophrenia later on, as well as mood problems like bipolar disorder and depression.

In short: autism and schizophrenia represent opposite ends of a spectrum that includes most, if not all, psychiatric and developmental brain disorders. The theory has no use for psychiatry’s many separate categories for disorders, and it would give genetic findings an entirely new dimension.

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