Hello Friends
Recently, I received a message from a friend with a child who suffers with autism.
As with any illness that affects the brain there is much heartache and little understanding of the illness. In this forum thread I will try to find and share any information i can in order to help educate people about this illness. As in all of my forums, I do this for the sake of spreading a message of hope with those who suffer as a result of this illness.

A Battle Over the Link Between Vaccines and Autism
by Bill Wilson


Scientists and consumer organizations disagree whether vaccinating children is a factor with autism.

The condition known as autism has caused a heavyweight fight in children's healthcare. In one corner, are scientists and pharmaceutical companies, claiming vaccines don't cause autism. In the other corner, consumer organizations are saying there is irrefutable evidence that some vaccinations do. Peter Hotez is a vaccine researcher at George Washington University.

"I conclude there is no relationship between vaccines and autism. There is no relationship between Thymerasol and autism. And I don't even believe that there is a relationship between mercury and autism."

Barbara Loe Fisher, of the National Vaccine Information Center, says that after a quarter century of vaccinations, evidence suggests otherwise.

"We have witnessed the nearly doubling of the number of doses of vaccines our children receive. At the same time our nation has experienced a doubling of the numbers of children suffering with learning disabilities, ADHD and asthma, a tripling of diabetes, and a 200 to 7,000 percent increase in autism in every state."

Cindy Hill from Maryland says doctors have confirmed her autistic son Luke is evidence of vaccinations gone awry.

"Luke's pediatrician indicated that his immune system was not functioning properly which would make him hypersensitive to infections and vaccines. We have since learned that autism is triggered by environmental factors, including vaccines. What's really upsetting is that nobody warned us of these risks before we vaccinated our son."

Dan Olmsted, a UPI reporter, says he researched a group of Amish people whose kids were never vaccinated and found only one autism case in two states. After further review, the autistic child was the only one who had received his childhood vaccinations.

As usual, money's in the mix. Researchers and scientists don't receive new federal grants for work already done. But, studying new theories of genetic ties to autism, for example, can be financially rewarding to everyone-- except kids like Luke.

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Hello Mary and thank you for your reply to this forum. As far as weather autism is an illness or not is still very much a matter of dispute. There are many researchers that believe that autism is caused by childhood immunizations thus supplying the cause. There are also others who claim that autism can be completely cured rather than just dealt with. I will continue to research this topic and post my findings to this forum. For now though, here is how autism is defined in the DSM4

Autism-Related Disorders in DSM-IV
Meredyth Goldberg Edelson, Ph.D.
Department of Psychology, Willamette University
Salem, Oregon
The new Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition (DSM-IV) came out in the summer of 1994. There have been numerous changes which affect the diagnoses of Autism and related disorders. This summary will review those changes and the possible impact of these changes on persons with Autism and related disorders.

First, the category of disorders under which Autism falls, Pervasive Developmental Disorders, are now coded in a different location in DSM-IV than in its predecessor, DSM-IIIR. It used to be the case that the Pervasive Developmental Disorders were coded on Axis II, the axis that was reserved for long-term, stable disorders with relatively poor prognosis for improvement. Pervasive Developmental Disorders are now coded on Axis I, the axis that is used to diagnose episodic and more transient clinical disorders. The possible implication of this move is the recognition that symptoms of these disorders can vary and possibly improve with intervention whereas the disorders which remain on Axis II, mental retardation and the personality disorders, are typically long-term and often unresponsive to treatment.

In addition to moving the axis on which these disorders are diagnosed, the diagnostic criteria for Autism has changed slightly, and three Autism-related disorders (which had been recognized in the European community's International Classification of Diseases (ICD) system for awhile) have been added to DSM-IV. In order for a diagnosis of Autism to be made, the person still needs to evidence problems in three broad areas: social interaction, communication, and stereotyped patterns of behavior. However, the number of symptoms which fall under these three broad areas have been reduced from 16 to 12 to make this diagnostic category more homogeneous. The individual needs to evidence 6 symptoms spanning the three broad areas with at least two symptoms indicating social interaction deficits, and one symptom in each of the communication and stereotyped patterns of behavior categories. The symptoms which fall under the social interaction category are: marked impairment in the use of multiple nonverbal behaviors; failure to develop age-appropriate peer relationships; lack of spontaneous seeking to share interests and achievements with others; and lack of social or emotional reciprocity. The symptoms which fall under the communication category are: delay in or lack of spoken language development (with no compensation through alternative modes of communication); in verbal persons, marked impairment in conversational skills; stereotyped and repetitive use of language; and lack of spontaneous age-appropriate make-believe or social imitative play. The symptoms which fall under the stereotyped patterns of behavior category are: preoccupation with at least one stereotyped and restricted patterns of interest to an abnormal degree; inflexible adherence to nonfunctional routines or rituals; stereotyped and repetitive motor mannerisms; and preoccupation with parts of objects. Besides at least 6 of these symptoms, there also needs to be delays in either social interaction, social communication, or symbolic or imaginative play. Another change is that the age of onset of these symptoms has to occur prior to age 3.

Hi Lisa
Yes this is a terribly misunderstood disorder. As I research this topic I am finding more and more informaton that sems to link autism to childhood immunizations. I am beginning to wonder if their is a link brtween mental illness and immunizations as well.That would certainly explain why there seems to be such a intentional avoidence of the subject by our government. This is a whole new area of research for me to look into. Thanks for your sup[port LIsa.
SIncerly, Bill Vanderbilt/Fanbelt
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