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Science Forum Index » Medicine - Lyme Forum » Is the Autism Epidemic a Myth? [Excerpt
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| LunaTick |
 Posted: Fri Jan 19, 2007 2:41 pm |
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Is the Autism Epidemic a Myth? [Excerpt]
By Claudia Wallis
Time
Jan. 12, 2007
Epidemic is a powerful word. It generates bold headlines, congressional
hearings, research dollars and dramatic, high-stakes hunts for
culprits. It's a word that has lately been attached to autism. How else
to account for the fact that a disorder that before 1990 was reported
to affect just 4.7 out of every 10,000 American children now strikes 60
per 10,000, according to many estimates--the equivalent of 1 in 166
kids?
But what if there is no epidemic? What if the apparent explosion in
autism numbers is simply the unforeseen result of shifting definitions,
policy changes and increased awareness among parents, educators and
doctors? That's what George Washington University anthropologist Roy
Richard Grinker persuasively argues in a new book sure to generate
controversy. In Unstrange Minds: Remapping the World of Autism, Grinker
uses the lens of anthropology to show how shifting cultural conditions
change the way medical scientists do their work and how we perceive
mental health.
Grinker, whose 15-year-old daughter is autistic, concedes that there's
something reassuring about the idea of an epidemic: "Thinking about any
disorder as an epidemic is easier than thinking about it in terms of
multiple causes, shifting definitions and a scientific reality we are
only just beginning to understand." Besides, if a disease suddenly
spikes, it seems more plausible that the increase could be reversed--if
only we could find the mysterious environmental trigger. With autism,
though, that hopeful scenario seems just too simple. |
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