A Highly Recommendable Article
In The Wall Street Journal
In The Wall Street Journal
My apologies again for my shameless
reference to a long article titled “Progress
in Identifying the Genetic Roots of Autism” published today (9/25/2012) in
the Wall Street Journal, but it goes to show that Wall Street is really not
about business and profit as some would like to believe us.
Environmental Factors
Since this article is
primarily about genetic causes, it only mentions that environmental factors
also play a significant role without further discussing it.
I have previously written a blog
post about the link between Autism and obesity in mothers.
Meanwhile, I have read
articles about the link
of Autism and aging fathers, because of the increase of random mutations as
they age. By the way, this study was led by the Icelandic firm Decode Genetics.
Possible Fallacies
This article could lead desperate
parents to believe that there is or must be a genetic cause for every autism
case among the vaguely termed Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Therefore, there
must be a cure available in the near future.
Given the intense research in
this area and the increased public awareness, there may be a tendency to
diagnose all sorts of symptoms as ASD. The article also mentions the dramatic
increase in such diagnoses saying “ASD now affects 1 in every 88 U.S.
children—nearly double the rate in 2002—according to the Center for Disease
Control.”. This is like a sudden epidemy. How many are possibly misdiagnoses?
Possible Import
Rapid progress in Autism
research may also benefit psychological/psychiatric disorders in general.
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