91–100 of 358 posts
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When “comorbidity” is used in this context, are we actually referring to people dying because of it? Or does it just mean “are found together when discussing this disease?”
> Or does it just mean “are found together when discussing this disease?” this. "morbid" is from the Latin root "morbus", meaning sickness.
> The researchers discovered that a small number of biochemical pathways are responsible for the majority of these changes, which could help inform new early detection and prevention strategies for autism. It won’t. Autism is a socioculturally bound diagnosis, not a single disease that exists in biology. It’s a label for those perceived by others in a certain light, defined in such a way that two with the same label…
> Autism is a socioculturally bound diagnosis This is untrue and unsupported by evidence > It's a label for those perceived by others in a certain light This is untrue and unsupported by evidence > defined in such a way that two with the same label can have remarkably little overlap in terms of observed behaviour This is untrue and unsupported by evidence > You diagnose autism based on how people act, not who they ar…
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I'm being productive by pushing back and saying that when people say that autism needs to be cured and prevented, that they shouldn't say that, because autism doesn't need to be cured and prevented. It's not a disease, but in this society it is a disability, and there's a stigma and lack of understanding around autism in general. What we can do today to make life better for autistic people everywhere is to spread awa…
This is about people diagnosed before the age of 5, they're almost all cases of severe autism. That's very different from the kind of autism you're talking about. People who are permanently unable to live independently have a condition that should be prevented if possible.
Sometimes "severe" autism at an early age calms down as a person grows.
Sometimes "mild" autism gets worse as someone becomes dysregulated and overstimulated.
Many times autism is missed in women and POC because they mask more readily than boys. Sometimes it's missed in boys because it's explained as "boys being boys".
Either way, why don't you ask autistic people if they want to be "cured" or "accommodated"? I think you'll find the answer is "accommodation". It seems like, to me at least, it's only not autistic people who talk about "curing" autism, as if they'd be doing the world a favor if there were no more autistic people.
Is anyone else reading this and seeing the worrying, “we can just medicate away the autism”? They’re talking about a possible pharmaceutical “fix” for autism in children under 5. Seems a bit premature for just recently finding a metabolic difference in a cohort of children.
That's not what the article suggests at all. It's during the developmental stage, which is by nature temporary.
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... Naviaux and his team completed early clinical testing for suramin. ... Now, the researchers hope that by revealing the specific ATP-related pathways that are altered in autism, their work will help scientists develop more drugs that target these pathways to manage the symptoms of ASD.
"Suramin is just one drug that targets the cell danger response," he said. "Now that we're closely interrogating how metabolism changes in ASD, we could be at the beginning of a drug renaissance that will create new options for treatment that never existed before."
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This study [literally] brought to you by Pannex Therapeutics, Yuva Biosciences, Kuzani, and Paxmedica, MaraBio Systems, Inc and undoubtedly numerous other big pharma interests that were able to keep the study at arm's length enough to avoid disclosure requirements. [1]
[1] - https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-024-06102-y#Sec36
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> There is a big difference between "neurodiverse" people and severely autistic people facing huge challenges in their life. Are you seriously dismissing the idea of helping treat that latter group? The people who you are referring to as neurodiverse also face huge challenges. When everyone hates you just for being yourself and not hurting anyone, that is a huge challenge. This can threaten peoples ability to make a…
Thanks for you comment. I was only splitting the spectrum into the two broadest categories for rhetorical simplicity. Of course I also agree that society needs to become more accepting and supportive of all types of people. To put it simply, we should not become a bioengineered dystopia. We can do two things at once though. >I think that this type of research is unnecessarily lumping intellectual disabilities with th…
If can be easy to say that we should simply explore all avenues of research, and in an ideal world this would be true, but we do not live in an ideal world. There are two concerns with this type of research:
- it has an opportunity cost of research that might be more effective (for example medical treatments that could help with sensory hypersensitivity under an informed consent model could be a good result, or research that helps us understand what, exactly, leads allistic people to hate autistic people so much so that we can improve communication in both directions)
- it creates new abilities for those who would do eugenicist harm, even if they are well-meaning
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I understand the sentiment, but there's a reason it's called the autism spectrum. I work with several software engineers with autism who are as capable as their peers. Sure they may have behavioral quirks, but not significantly more so than the normal variation in human behavior. Their brains don't seem to work in an inferior or problematic way, just different. On the other hand, I have a close relative with more sev…
Indeed, my ex wife was incapable of living on her own or holding a job. I have a whole social circle of autistic friends of different abilities. Some still live with their parents. Men in their 40s living with their parents. Women who left home for the first time at 30 only to have to move back within months. My one friend is a sex worker because she can't hold down a real job. She sells her meds and her body to get…
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I understand the sentiment, but there's a reason it's called the autism spectrum. I work with several software engineers with autism who are as capable as their peers. Sure they may have behavioral quirks, but not significantly more so than the normal variation in human behavior. Their brains don't seem to work in an inferior or problematic way, just different. On the other hand, I have a close relative with more sev…
Then people should stop conflating the two. This whole "spectrum" nonsense is nonsense. Your coworkers are not autistic - they are weird or whatever other more PC term you might want to use, and that's great - many, if not most, great engineers are!. There is no need to pathologize differences in people. Your relative, by contrast, is. If you have a habit of feeling sleepy at work, it's not like we say you're on the…
https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/autism-spectrum-disor...
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I understand the sentiment, but there's a reason it's called the autism spectrum. I work with several software engineers with autism who are as capable as their peers. Sure they may have behavioral quirks, but not significantly more so than the normal variation in human behavior. Their brains don't seem to work in an inferior or problematic way, just different. On the other hand, I have a close relative with more sev…
Then people should stop conflating the two. This whole "spectrum" nonsense is nonsense. Your coworkers are not autistic - they are weird or whatever other more PC term you might want to use, and that's great - many, if not most, great engineers are!. There is no need to pathologize differences in people. Your relative, by contrast, is. If you have a habit of feeling sleepy at work, it's not like we say you're on the…
"with only 10–20% of children diagnosed before 5 years of age able to live independently as adults" > Well this is nonsense for starters - circular logic. Doctors won't diagnose autism in most cases before the age of eight. For the diagnosis to have happened before the age of five would imply that the case is profound in the first place.
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That's completely incorrect. Autism has clear physiological differences in the brain. It's not just a personality difference. People like to call themselves autistic when it's just social awkwardness, and some doctors might even improperly diagnose them, but these are separate from the condition. https://www.healthcentral.com/condition/autism/autism-brain-... This could help us prevent autism completely.
>People like to call themselves autistic when it's just social awkwardness, and some doctors might even improperly diagnose them, but these are separate from the condition. What makes such a diagnosis incorrect when various forms of social awkwardness satisfy criteria A and D of the diagnostic criteria [1], and all of the criteria for social pragmatic disorder[2]? In the DSM-V-TR era psychiatrists are instructed to n…
This puts medical boards in a sticky situation where they have to be inclusive since there's not enough research to say the latter group are definitely not autistic.
I'm in the camp that you shouldn't diagnose an issue without clear physiological or chemistry differences, but I'm not in control of the medical boards. I think we all agree that you shouldn't self-diagnose.