Amish and autism, good read..

Retardation, yes, it's been around forever, but "autism", ....... and the like are inventions by pseudo-medics. Some of them really believe what they say, the others are in it for the money.

ThroughTheLookingGlass wrote:

If you look at the autism statistic by themselves, it appears that there is more autism now. However, if you look at autism stats in conjunction with other developmental disorders, particularly retardation, you will see cases of retardation decreasing in about the same numbers. It appears to be a diagnostic shift rather than the appearance of new cases. ..........

Actuarially speaking there are no "new" diseases. Nobody in risk management believes in the existence of any of those "suddenly discovered" psychobabble "illnesses".

Retardation, yes, it's been around forever, but "autism", "ADD", "ADHD" and the like are inventions by pseudo-medics. Some of them really believe what they say, the others are in it for the money.

Worse than the medics, even, are the "minders", including teachers, who would rather apply the time-tested Soviet gulag forcible administration of psycho-drugs than put up with difficult children.

All those Soviet psychiatric asylum inmates got miraculously "cured" after the communist collapse - obviously a triumph of Russian medicine!

Diagnostic monstrosities by pseudo-medics, in both cases.

The drugmakers are raking it in with the "new" drugs to "treat" all those "new" diseases, so they're not complaining. Insurance companies have plenty of mathematically trained actuaries, all of whom know what I just posted, but they're under pressure by politically correct regulators who can cause vast damage to the insurers' reserves and credit rating.

I guess the Amish don't go much for "health insurance", specially when it comes to "mental health parity" - that would explain their statistics <G>

Chai - I'm a mathematician, not a medic. Even if I were a medical doctor I wouldn't presume to diagnose online.

If you read the Amish article at the start of this thread you'll see the "autistic" child was adopted in China.

The Chinese know very well factors contributing to mental retardation (for instance, illnesses afflicting the mother during pregnancy) and have long been suspected of dispatching those newborns to eager adoptive parents overseas - without, of course, any background information on the baby.

Whether this is the case here, of course, cannot be ascertained without actual checking of all pertinent facts - not likely to occur any time soon.

ThroughTheLookingGlass wrote:

If you look at the autism statistic by themselves, it appears that there is more autism now. However, if you look at autism stats in conjunction with other developmental disorders, particularly retardation, you will see cases of retardation decreasing in about the same numbers. It appears to be a diagnostic shift rather than the appearance of new cases. ..........

Actuarially speaking there are no "new" diseases. Nobody in risk management believes in the existence of any of those "suddenly discovered" psychobabble "illnesses".

Chai - I already answered you. You seem to conflate "diagnosis" and "symptoms".

Centuries ago people suffering seizures were "diagnosed" as sorcerers and burned alive. Now the "same symptoms" will probably lead to another "diagnosis" such as, for instance, epilepsy.

Please think this through - doesn't mean the sick people are "faking" their symptoms, or they're not suffering; it does mean that making up some artificial diagnosis such as "sorcery" isn't likely to lead to any beneficial treatment for the patient.

Hope that was clear.

Centuries ago people suffering seizures were "diagnosed" as sorcerers and burned alive. Now the "same symptoms" will probably lead to another "diagnosis" such as, for instance, epilepsy.

I think a lot of these problems are real -- ADD, ADHD, Asperger's, etc., but god help you if you are diagnosed with them.

High Seas wrote:

Centuries ago people suffering seizures were "diagnosed" as sorcerers and burned alive. Now the "same symptoms" will probably lead to another "diagnosis" such as, for instance, epilepsy.

I had to reread this more carefully.

Aren't you just reaffirming what I'm saying?

If someone is having seizures, are you saying we should have stuck with the old tried and true diagnosis of sorcery? Why come up with a psycho-babble diagnosis when we know it's witchcraft?

Thus, a new diagnosis was discovered, and one that's a darn sight better than working with the devil.

Having seizure can be caused by many illness, epilepsy included.

Certain symptoms can be caused by multiple things, one of which is autism.

I guess I fall somewhere in the middle of all this. I do think some of it is psychobabble - what used to be accepted as quirky is now Asperger's. That kind of bothers me. I like quirky.

Autism though is obviously a serious problem.

Seizures are obviously a serious problem not related to sorcery.

There is a whole alphabet of behavior disorders that doctors attempt to treat but they don't really understand -- Aspergers, ADHD, etc. I won't try to outhink High Seas or put words in her mouth but I think that's what she was getting at with her sorcery analogy.

We pay for my son's therapist out of pocket instead of turning in to our insurance company. If we have him evaluated for ADHD we'll probably do the same. Some day he'll be all grown up and have to pay for his own insurance and we don't want this stuff to haunt (and bankrupt) him.

........ Are you saying that standard actuarial practice is to treat any "new" disease as a subset of an existing diagnosis category when assessing risk?

If you look at the autism statistic by themselves, it appears that there is more autism now. However, if you look at autism stats in conjunction with other developmental disorders, particularly retardation, you will see cases of retardation decreasing in about the same numbers. ............It is probably a good idea to be suspect of any diagnosis based solely on behavior with no genetic or chemical backup, particularly when these labels can have adverse effects on the rest of the child's life.

......New use of antipsychotics for schizophrenia, acute psychotic reaction, Tourette syndrome, and mental retardation or autism remained relatively constant. Secular trends of increasing use were most pronounced for those aged 6 to 12 years (93% increase) and 13 to 18 years (116% increase), although use among preschool children increased 61% during the study period.......
http://archpedi.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/158/8/753

Actuarially speaking there are no "new" diseases. Nobody in risk management believes in the existence of any of those "suddenly discovered" psychobabble "illnesses".

High Seas wrote:

Actuarially speaking there are no "new" diseases. Nobody in risk management believes in the existence of any of those "suddenly discovered" psychobabble "illnesses".

So you are saying now there ARE new diseases, but people don't DIE of these new diseases, they die of the same old stuff as before....like having a socerer cast a spell on you?

You speak with forked tongue.

..........
There is a whole alphabet of behavior disorders that doctors attempt to treat but they don't really understand -- Aspergers, ADHD, etc. I won't try to outhink High Seas or put words in her mouth but I think that's what she was getting at with her sorcery analogy.
................