an saw something organic was being discussed, too...it's just women, right? no problems with males, like as in some drug use?

cause i have a pal whose dgs is on them...he's middle-school aged...

I read something recently about the increase of Autism cases.. it really alarmed me. I'm thinking it was 1 in 55 boys. Scary!

Below is a link I had saved which lists a lot of therapies for Autism... some experimental, but promising.

Here is a link that might be useful: Autism help

There was also an article study that said antidepressants caused it. ....
However, cases of autism and aspbergers were identified long before antidepressants ever were on the scene.

Something else causes it, but maybe some of these things magnify the likelihood. We cannot deny that there is more autism now than ever. God bless the parents who are raising these incredible yet challenging children.

I misspelled valproate.

Antidepressants have been on the market since the 1950s. I don't know how much of a role they've played in the rise of autism, but in my opinion they are certainly overprescribed. Time magazine says 1 in 10 Americans is on an antidepressant. Scary.

It seems clear that a large percentage of cases of autism must be caused by something we're doing now that we didn't used to do, or something we used to do that we're failing to do now.

Could some of the chemicals in today's processed foods be culprits? It's a thought. But my #1 suspect is ultrasound. Talk about overprescribed! Not only are obstetricians promoting regular prenatal ultrasounds ("Let's see how your baby's doing"....), but mall ultrasound boutiques are luring expectant couples with "4-D" (whatever that is) ultrasound videos.

It has been documented that ultrasound has an effect on the baby's nervous system. It's well known that ultrasound produces an abnormal percentage of left-handed boys. Lefthandedness by itself isn't something to get alarmed about, but who knows what else those prenatal ultrasounds are doing?

I agree about the ultrasounds. IMHO, Those should be used only when it's absolutely necessary. It's easy to get lured into wanting to see the fetus, and to be able to learn the sex, etc., but come on, it can't be without some risk.
I hope the Dr'.s know enough to be able to say they are safe, but I'm not convinced.

One reason for the increase in autism is that our doctors are getting better at diagnosing it. Another is that they definition changed several years ago, the effect of which was to widen the definition which resulted in including people who had previously been considered too mildly affected.

The parents of autistic kids are heroes in my book.

By the way, I loved the movie "Granlan" about a highly functioning autistic young woman who used her insight to provide for more humane treatment of feed lot/slaughter animals and whose story is not only inspirational but also educational.

I have a son who is in his 40s of age and he has autism disorder. When he was a young child, autism was recognized but not well defined or diagnosed. There was a tendancy to hide this malady under the rug in hopes it would reduce or go away. There was a reluctance to hang this label on anyone, and especially the health insurance companies. Today, this definition of this disease has been broadened to include several related disorders of varying degrees. Also, awareness and detection has improved. This change increased the number of children labeled with autism disorder.

Another factor is better survival of children to young adulthood. Look at your genealogy data of 150 years ago and you may find for example, families that birthed 8 children and ony 5 or 6 survived to age 16. (Nature can be cruel.) Better survival rates has an effect.

Just think of all the drugs and 'supplements' in our water! I remember hearing someone say that Americans have the most expensive urine in the world.

Is this increase in diagnosis only in the US?