Controversies
Contents
Controversial Alternative Therapies
Hypothesis
There are many controversial and unsubstantiated theories of causation of ASDs and ineffective treatments in children with autism. Patients with serious levels of deficits and limited success with evidenced based treatments are particularly vulnerable to the placebo effect and thus more likely to falsely be persuaded that these treatments work. Below are some popular hypothesis which are unsubstantiated.
Chelation Therapy Supporters of Chelation Therapy claim that autism stems from an excess in mercury and other metals in the body. In particular, they believe that the inclusion of mercury containing thimerosal in certain vaccines leads to an excess of mercury in the body which causes neurologic damage and subsequently autism. Thimerosal is included in vaccines to protect multiple-dose virals from bacterial and fungal contamination. '
Why this can not be: No children with autism have been reported to have an elevated mercury levels or an excess of mercury in hair, urine, or blood. Futhermore, the clinical signs and symptoms of mercury-induced neurologic damage and the neuropatholgic changes associated with mercury exposure are NOT the same as the clinical signs and symptoms of autism. Furthermore, population based studies show that the risk of autism in children given thimerosal containing vaccines are the same as children given vaccines without thimerosal. Futhermore, in 1992 thimerosal was removed from childhood vaccines in Denmark, but the occurrence of autism has continued to rise in Denmark. If vaccines containing thimerosal caused autism, we would expect a drop in cases of ASD. Moreover, even IF thimerosal was related to the incidence of autism, there is no evidence that chelation therapy improves heavy metal toxicity.
Dangers There is a risk of renal and hepatic toxic adverse effects for children undergoing chelation therapy.
- References
1. Barbaresi et. al. Autism: A Review of the State of the Science for Pediatric Primary Health Care Clinicians. Arch Pediatr adolesc med/Vol. 160, Nov 2006. pg. 1171
Related Information
- Task or test associated with this construct (vote for your favorite, or nominate a new one by editing this page)
- Indicators (dependent variables, conditions, or contrasts; measurement variables used for analysis) associated with this construct (vote or nominate by editing this page):
- Closely related pages (vote or nominate related pages by editing this page):
- CNP Level (What's this?)
- Cognitive Concept
External Resources
- Links out:
- Wikipedia: Cognitive Control
- Google: Cognitive Control
- PubMed: Cognitive Control
- -ucla cognitive atlas- (coming soon!)
- Database links
