The mystery in medicine - autism

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The mystery in medicine - autism
The mystery in medicine - autism
Anonim

Experiments in the form of medical facts shape public attitudes towards this overly complex disease, which are also ultimately debunked by subsequent research. A truly vicious cycle that we have been going through for decades now, and this has devastating consequences for the lives of autistic people and their family members

This is what American journalist Steven Silberman, author of the popular science book "Neurotribes: The Legacy of Autism and How We Already Think Smarter About People Who Think Different", is confident. Just days ago, this book about autism won Britain's biggest award for non-fiction. In it, the author tries to answer the many questions about this unpleasant disease. What kind of answers are the parents of autistic children looking for these days, as well as all of us as a society

1 MYTH:

It has not been proven that years ago they suffered from autism less often. The main reason for the increased number of patients is the diagnosis

This is the first most widespread, absolutely false myth. Internet forums for young mothers are filled with false information, such as the fact that in 1970 the incidence of autism among American schoolchildren was one in 10,000, and now it is one in 68. Some parents and activists quite wrongly blame vaccinations for this. They cite research by gastroenterologist Andrew Wakefield, who in 1998 pointed to a link between the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine and a bowel disorder called autistic enterocolitis. But there is no scientific data in favor of this hypothesis, even the co-authors of the article on this occasion subsequently apologized to the readers. In fact, a major reason for the sharp increase in the incidence of autism in recent decades is the fact that more children, adolescents and adults are now being diagnosed with it. Until almost 1980, such a diagnostic category as autism spectrum disorder simply did not exist. Until 1980 in the US, parents often had to see their children 9-10 specialists before they were diagnosed with autism. It wasn't until the late 1980s that British psychiatrist Lorna Wing, now deceased, offered the psychiatric community a concept of the so-called spectrum of autistic disorders, and soon after the concept of Asperger's syndrome.

The two terms gained enormous popularity in clinical psychiatry because they reflected all the diverse conditions observed in patients much better than the earlier limited Kanner model. Wing and her colleagues made clear at the time that autism is a lifelong developmental disorder, not a rare childhood psychosis. Wing flatly rejected the link of autism to vaccinations: "It's very much a matter of diagnosis".

2 MYTH:

It is not true that autistic people are incapable of feelings

In reality, people suffering from autism are not indifferent to the feelings of others, even the opposite. Sometimes they suffer so much in this regard that their will is paralyzed. It is difficult for them to recognize non-verbal signals from others - barely noticeable changes in facial expressions, body language, voice. I.e. the things "normal" people use to show their emotional state. This suggestion continues to be the reason for society's unjustifiably cruel treatment of such patients. Showing "social stories" - visualizations of interpersonal communication situations is able to accelerate the learning process of children with autistic disorders. And we he althy people, if we spend more time with them, we would understand them better. Because empathy is a two-way street.

3 MYTH:

It is not necessary, it is even harmful to force autistic children to copy the behavior of he althy ones.

In 1980University of California psychologist Ol Ivar Lovas developed a program known as applied behavior analysis in which young patients could be "treated" until they became "indistinguishable" from their peers. I.e. through long years of intensive work to force them, to model them almost to behave like he althy children. However, there are a number of problems associated with this method - starting with the fact that most families cannot afford the proposed "full immersion" program, which requires the participation of "all people important to the patient in all significant life situations".

Doctors practicing this method recommend 40 hours a week of such therapy, but even this is too much for most parents. Moreover, it turns out that Lovas' methodology is not at all that successful. His former colleague Christian Lord, a leading researcher in the field of autism, later stated that Lovas's "achievements" could not be used as scientific evidence. Moreover, some adults suffering from autism remember how in their childhood they were forced to copy the behavior of their peers. And they claim that this traumatic behavior has become a constant feeling of anxiety throughout their lives.

Barry Prizant, co-author of the alternative model for teaching children with autism, recently published a book in which he urges parents and doctors to view the "autistic" behavior of the child not as a sign of pathology, but as a strategy for adaptation to the environment a world that seems chaotic, unpredictable and frightening to them. It means that such children often wave their hands and repeat foreign words. The downside of trying to force a child to copy the behavior of their peers is that "we treat the patient as a problem that needs to be solved, not as a person that needs to be understood," notes Prizant. By trying to understand why a child behaves in a certain way, parents and treating doctors can learn to determine the causes of changes in his emotional state. And they can turn out to be mundane irritants like a creaking door or the sound of a broken fluorescent light. In this sense, they can soften the impact of these irritating factors. This can lead to long-term changes in the sick child's behavior and also help discover the child's abilities and the difficulties he has to face.

4 MYTH:

The truth is that all too often this modern diagnosis is given to all eccentric children.

Each of the symptoms exhibited by autistics is, to one degree or another, also inherent to non-autistics, let's call them. Autistics are characterized by self-stimulation (repetitive movements), and the so-called neurotypical people - the fussy movements. Autistics have fixations and obsessions, neurotypicals have hobbies and interests. All autistics have "sensory sensitivity", incl. and increased irritability when in contact with materials, while a neurotypical person may simply dislike a polyester garment. In other words, there is a huge gray area between autism and no autism. One of Wing's favorite lines was the phrase uttered by the British politician Winston Churchill: "Nature never draws clear lines without first blurring them." Researchers have even coined a special term for this borderline: the broad phenotype of autism. However, most of the people who fall under this definition in everyday life take them for eccentrics. For example, a person annoying with his endless stories about some historical battle. Or a girl who adores her cat, memorizing and quoting dialogue from a favorite sci-fi TV series. Lately, "autistic tendencies" have also stuck to many famous people: for example, didn't the co-founder of "Apple" Steve Jobs suffer from a similar disorder? Or the inhuman performance of Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer? The American comedian Jerome Seinfeld, for example, diagnosed himself with autism after watching the Broadway production: "The Mysterious Murder of the Dog in the Nighttime" based on the British novel of the same name, where the action is led by an autistic boy. However, Seinfeld quickly retracted his words.

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