Tuesday, September 25, 2012

New Genetic Tests For Autism

A Highly Recommendable Article
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.


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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