The Vaccine Wars Were Just a Start
A new study about ADHD in the November 12th Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that the brains of those with ADHD mature “normally” but at a different (as in a delayed) rate. The New York Times ran an article on November 13th, Bad Behavior Does Not Doom Pupils, Studies Say, in which they combined discussion of the ADHD study with another about academic outcomes for kindergarteners with behavior problems: In this article, ADHD seems to be equated to “children with behavior problems”; in the NY Times article, it was also suggested that ADHD is something that many children can “grow out of.”
….as I’d come to understand it, ADHD is a disorder that dogs most sufferers throughout their lives. Its durability is part of what qualifies it as a “disorder,” distinct from, let’s say, situational, stressed-out or anxious distractability, childish immaturity or plain old bad behavior.Not only does ADHD tend to last, I’ve read, and heard, again and again, it’s associated with all kinds of bad outcomes over time: increased rates of depression, anxiety and substance abuse, and low self-esteem, at the very least. It was hard to believe that the new “good news” could turn decades of research on its ear. It was troubling, too.
I’m with Warner about ADHD; I’ve also heard people say, in a somewhat similar vein, that those with Asperger Syndrome “just” have some sort of “personality problem” that they need to “get over,” and that they should leave the autism designation for the “lfa” types (this is not, please note, my own view). As I have noted before, my husband Jim has ADHD and it has definitely had a huge impact on his life; he was indignant at hearing that “three out of four” children diagnosed with ADHD just “grow out of it”: What about him?Charlie takes psychiatric medications—-Risperdal and Zoloft. They do help him; we never see them as any kind of panacea or cure-all, but something else that helps Charlie to be ready to learn. When I have mentioned that he takes medication, I have sometimes received comments questioning my choices. Warner, in Ritalin Wars, makes two points about media reporting on scientific studies about children’s health, and about the broader societal debate about psychiatric disorders and medications in children:
So why, this week, did the gloves come out, with the armies of all that is Good taking on the usual forces of Evil psychopharmacology?…….
Facts don’t have much sway when you’re in the grip of a religion. And the beliefs underlying the Ritalin wars (I am using “Ritalin” here as shorthand for the whole practice of diagnosing children and treating them with psychotropic drugs) have truly now become like a creed. They’re only superficially about diagnosis and medication. For most people, they’re more profoundly about a sense of menace bearing down upon the world of our children. [my emphasis]
There’s a sense that greater powers, profit-driven and amoral, are pulling the strings in our children’s lives. There’s a sense that those who should best protect us — our government and our doctors — are so corrupted that they can no longer do the job. [my emphasis]. There’s a sense that childhood has, in many ways, been denatured, that youth has been stolen, that the range of human acceptability has been narrowed for our kids to a point that it has become soul-crushingly inhuman.
Warner’s analysis here of the Ritalin Wars could be applied to what I’ll call the Vaccine Wars, or, more broadly, the Autism Wars, or at least the War Over What Is It That Causes Autism and Don’t Say Genetics. How often, in discussions about a vaccine-autism link, is there a reference to “Big Pharma” (= Evil psychopharmacology)? No matter how much anyone notes that there is no valid scientific evidence for a vaccine-autism link, the question never seems to stop coming up (as evidenced in the recent anti-vaccination protests after a Maryland judge brought parents to court over whether or not their children had received their immunizations). That judge joins a host of “greater powers”—doctors, especially, scientists, researchers, the CDC, the authorities (generally understood)—who are thought to be “pulling the strings in our children’s lives,” but without really knowing what they are doing. And how often have you heard accounts of a child seemingly “stolen away” by autism, their very soul seeming to slip away?
Maybe it feels like there’s a war of childhood going on out there. The vaccines that we give our kids to keep them healthy are thought to be failing them and even (according to some) making them sick, and kids need to be “rescued” from this scourge: How can we (it is asked) have faith in science and in the experts?Warner does not simply note the feelings behind such statements. But she wonders, and I’ll align myself again with her and wonder too, about the “anti-” ideology here at work by the “armies of the Good,” that overlooks “real children and their parents.”
I used to be anti-medication for my son. As he has grown up, I have been learning how it can help him, and also how there is still so much for him to learn through good and careful teaching, and how he can learn more now that he is older. I don’t mean that Charlie might “grow out of” autism anymore than a person can grow out of ADHD: Charlie is learning how to better communicate and deal with his emotions and frustrations and impulses. Autism is lifelong for Charlie and his needs are very, all too, real—and my need to take care of these and of him first and foremost is perhaps the reason I wonder if the Ritalin Wars, and the Vaccine Wars, and even the Autism Wars, are really just skirmishes that drain our energies from the real work we need to do.
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POSTED IN: Cause, Environment, Genetics, Medicine, Neuroscience, Parenting, Psychiatry, Vaccines
17 opinions for The Vaccine Wars Were Just a Start
Autismville
Nov 18, 2007 at 10:54 am
Pardon the overused cliche, but for us autism is our life … a marathon, not a sprint. The reality is it’s difficult to move forward when one’s focus is attacking the other runners in the race or those standing on the sidelines…
I wish we could all live our lives, support each other as much as possible and move forward focusing on the ones we love. All this hate, those playing the blame game, constantly lashing out at “the man” … or evil pharma, or each other … to me it feels counterproductive. Trips us up. Impedes our progress.
There are times I am guilty of slowing down my pace and rubbernecking a bit … Then I realize I’m not getting anywhere by doing this. And for those who are slinging the mud every day, while trying to maintain pace, it must be utterly exhausting.
So, I try … try to keep my eyes focused ahead. Running the race at my own comfortable pace. Doing all I can to improve Jack’s quality of life …
In the worlds of MLK, Jr. “I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear…”
Harold L Doherty
Nov 18, 2007 at 11:32 am
As someone who does not subscribe to the vaccine causes autism theories, because no credible studies supporting the theories have been done, and no credible evidence provided , it still amazes me at how consistently you malign those parents who believe based on their personal experiences, that vaccines were a factor. I disagree with them but I do not seek to trash them at every turn.
MothersVox
Nov 18, 2007 at 1:00 pm
So glad that you’ve taken up the new ADHD study! I found it fascinating because I think there’s a grain of truth in it . . . Our culture’s expectations for children’s levels of success (read as: early literacy, self-reflexive adult behavior, ability to remain cool calm and collected) have increased exponentially while the places where they can just be kids running around and blowing off steam have vanished (because we’re all worried, rightly or wrongly, that they’re going to be abducted or meet some other form of harm).
Since one of Sweet M’s many Dx’s is ADHD, I read the reports on that study with immense interest. I’m not sure one ever “outgrows” ones neurobiology — or that one should be pleased to be described as doing so. But the demands and restrictions on the individual change as one enters adulthood and therefore the possibilities for developing coping strategies that allow a normative “presentation” increase. Going through the educational system is one of the toughest things any of us do in life — even for those of us for whom it was relatively easy, but especially for those with enormous amounts of physical energy that is bursting at the seems in all those hours of sitting still.
Kristina Chew, PhD
Nov 18, 2007 at 1:10 pm
Thanks for your consistent critique, Harold, and hoping you will someday join the broader conversation.
Every day is another day of “spring training” for the big race day (if I may mix sports metaphors), is it not Autismville?
Excellent to hear from you, M’s Vox! The overlaps between the discourse on ADHD and autism are of great interest to me—-why is it that there always seems to be premiums on expecting kids to behave and not just be?
Daisy
Nov 18, 2007 at 1:43 pm
Medicine is treatment, not a cure. If medication can help Amigo deal with some of the symptoms of his Asperger’s (i.e. anxiety), then I’m all for it. It gives him a step up, lets him take control of himself in other ways.
Schwartz
Nov 18, 2007 at 2:57 pm
Kristina,
I’ll state first, that I fundamentally agree with your main premise that these conditions are not something one can just grow out of. I believe that they are all medically/health oriented. That is not to say that SOME people might grow out of it, some children’s environments will change, and the body is sometimes remarkably good at healing itself. However, I do believe that most of these are conditions that have roots in physical health problems.
I also fully support your use of medications, especially since you appear to have a good approach to the use of such things. In my mind, medications are similar in ways to more “natural” remedies, in that the best use of all of them is to work with a qualified professional, and monitor both the use, reaction, efficacy, and side effects of them.
Although I can acknowledge the far overbearing position of many “anti” groups, I don’t agree with you painting everyone who comments on issues with Vaccines (doesn’t have to be Autistic issues) or issues with “Big Pharma” with the same brush.
There are well documented issues with Big Pharma. There are also well documented issues with the Drug Regulatory process. There are also well documented and studied issues of widespread misuse of drugs, usually involving prescriptions to people for whom it is not needed, or even dangerous. Even better, there are well documented cases of drugs being used on populations for which little safety or efficacy study has been done. Many of these multitude of issues have been scietifically studied and published in peer-reviewed journals. If you choose to disregard every big pharma argument as conspiracy theory, then it is you who is ignoring the evidence. Same goes for vaccines. There is plenty scientifc documentation stating that both the short term and long term study of safety is sorely lacking — that doesn’t mean there is a problem, it just means we don’t know.
As for this week’s bruhaha in Maryland, many groups have every right to be outraged (even many vaccine proponents strongly disagree with the approach taken) by the actions taken there. The irony, is that it really had nothing to do with Autism, but with fundamental rights to refuse a medical treatment that is not deemed necessary, nor does it present any danger to society (heb B and chicken pox to be specific). Autism related groups became involved, because the fundamental right to concientiously refuse medical treatment in the form of vaccines appeared to be threatened (it may not have actually been threatened, because I understand that exemptions were allowed) and thus they feel they have a stake in the matter.
For you to paint the focus of this event as relating to Vaccines and Autism is very misleading and deceptive on your part.
(In reality, the biggest issue was probably lazy parents, but refusing kids entry into school would have solved that problem just as readily)
Marla
Nov 18, 2007 at 3:09 pm
I have never been thrilled with having to put my child on medication but we have been with medication and without and I will say that she needs the medication. Without it she is unable to focus ot learn, her emotions are out of control and it would seem unfair to deny her something that helps her so much.
I do wish everyone could simply do what works for their own families and not be beat up for it. We have tried diets and they did not work. We tried lots of stuff that did not work. Now, we do what works and let our daughter be who she is. I find if we focus on who she is and what her strengths are we all do pretty well.
Kristina Chew, PhD
Nov 18, 2007 at 3:33 pm
schwartz, From my experience as a teacher and, more personally, in a close relationship with an ADHD adult (Jim), I can say that aspects of these disorders/conditions can be lifelong and to say that some people grow out of these disorders, and others do not, is to suggest that the latter have not been trying hard enough. And the reality is that they have been trying very hard indeed.
I am afraid that, this being an autism blog, everything is seen from the lens of autism! Certainly a definite link between autism and vaccines has been created in the cultural imagination, and certainly misleading deceptions can arise from such associations. These are too unfortunate.
Marla: “I have never been thrilled with having to put my child on medication but we have been with medication and without and I will say that she needs the medication”—-this is precisely how I feel about medicating my son. It was not an easy decision to make; it has helped him, as have so many other things, especially good teaching—-he is doing pretty well, too.
Another Voice
Nov 18, 2007 at 9:30 pm
Autismville - That was one of the best comments I have seen in a good while on this topic.
Schwartz
Nov 18, 2007 at 9:42 pm
Kristina,
I believe that for most people, the disorders and conditions are lifelong. However, I would say that there are small numbers of people that do seem to grow out of lots of different ailments and I’ll bet someone could find an example with these conditions/disorders. However, by no means did I intend to imply that it was the norm or that it should be expected.
I never intended to imply that those who have the condition have done something wrong or haven’t tried hard enough. The fact that no one has a clear description of these disorders/conditions, let alone a clear recommended treatment, I can’t imagine why anyone would feel that way, or how people could publically accuse others of not trying hard enough.
However, not being a parent to children having any of these conditions, I can’t speak from experience. However, I have noted that a lot of animosity that exists between the various autistic communities derives from blatent accusations of poor, lack of, inadequate, useless, or dangerous attempts at treatment. The anger and unhealthy animosity is very sad and ultimately counterproductive.
Kristina Chew, PhD
Nov 18, 2007 at 11:22 pm
Agreed about the animosity. But there is one thing we can all agree on, and that is education—-on helping autistic kids today learn as best they can and, truly, to fulfill their potential. However my son became autistic, life with him is all about helping him in the here today and now—training him, if you will, for the marathon, and training myself too.
Marathon
Nov 20, 2007 at 11:20 am
[…] metaphor for life raising an autistic child—running a marathon—in a comment on a previous post: “Pardon the overused cliche, but for us autism is our life … a marathon, not a sprint. The […]
Patrick
Nov 20, 2007 at 5:29 pm
I sleep much better with anti-depressant medications. I can agree that medicines have their place when properly prescribed for some neurological conditions.
I also find it intersting that Mr. Doherty comes over here and complains and harps about someone maligning someone else when on his very own blog he maligns the neurodiversoty folks all the time. What a hypocrite.
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ADHD Report» Blog Archive » The Vaccine Wars Were Just a Start
Jan 22, 2008 at 11:40 pm
[…] Brad Weeks, MDReally interesting read I found today:The New York Times ran an article on November 13th, Bad Behavior Does Not Doom Pupils, Studies Say, in which they combined discussion of the ADHD study with another about academic outcomes for kindergarteners with behavior problems: In … […]
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