Urine Test For Autism 228
An anonymous reader writes "Defining and diagnosing autism has been a controversial process — but may be a little less so now. Children with autism have a different chemical fingerprint in their urine than non-autistic children, according to new research. The difference stems from a previously documented difference in gut bacteria found in autistic individuals. The possibility of a simple pee test matters because currently, children are assessed for autism through a lengthy testing process that explores a child's social interaction, communication, and imaginative skills. Being able to identify the condition earlier and at a lower cost could leave more time and money for treatment."
Re:screening for young engineers (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Labeling (Score:2, Insightful)
Get real. People get stuck with all kinds of shitty things, it's their own choice to overcome their problems or not. You can't assume the lowest common denominator is normal and scapegoat labeling for peoples' inability to cope.
Re:Labeling (Score:5, Insightful)
Autism isn't a label, it's a condition. The western mentality to diagnose and treat conditions is why humans' life expectancies have increased.
Stop regurgitating shit you hear from bad late night comics and ignorant rednecks.
Re:screening for young engineers (Score:3, Insightful)
Large part of being an engineer is an ability to interact with people effectively.
Re:Labeling (Score:5, Insightful)
I can't see this being of any benefit in the long term. The problem is, even if they -have- autism or other defects, labeling them will do nothing to have them overcome it and will lead the majority of them to make excuses to why they aren't productive members of society. I really don't understand the western mentality of labeling everyone to try to "help". Which is going to make people want to get ahead in life? Being told "hey you have -insert mental disability here-" or "hey, your not doing to great in -insert school subject here-". One has people making excuses and the other just has them either not focus on that and focus on what they are good at or try harder.
Are you serious? The sooner you get a diagnosis, the more therapy and assistance you can provide, which leads to greater success as the child gets older. Speech delays, learning disabilities...they don't have to be show stoppers. How much harder is it when parents struggle for years without knowing what's going on? How much harder is it for the kid when everyone just thinks s/he's dumb or lazy, not realizing there's an actual underlying condition? When you know what that condition is, you know how to approach it and offer help. It's not just a matter of applying a label and being done with it...it's understanding that the child has a neurological condition and finding ways to work with and around it.
Re:Labeling (Score:4, Insightful)
At the least, such tests can weed out people who in fact -don't have- autism.
Re:screening for young engineers (Score:2, Insightful)
A great engineer HAS social skills, they can communicate problems with management, work well in a team, they accept criticism and project changes without taking it personally, they make connections so that they can get things done.
A poor engineer might be able to make a few breakthroughs or calculations, but the real world isn't Hollywood where companies rely engineer supergenius nerd charicatures that prove their worth in the technical side.
There are great technical engineers and there are engineers with great social skills, and great technical engineers with social skills are far more needed than great technical engineers that do not fit well with the rest of the company. If they can fix the inability to grow socially, then companies get more of what they need.
Re:screening for young engineers (Score:5, Insightful)
not all autism is crippling. It can have a fairly broad spectrum, and the argument the OP seems to be trying to make is that quite a lot of the geeks and nerds in the world are a high functioning form of autism. I wouldn't guess as to percentage, but having worked in a disabilities service office at a university for 4 years, the sciences have a disproportionate share of the autism types, whereas the arts tend to cope better with ADHD types and so on.
Granted, a lot of this is self fulfilling. People with aspergers get into positions in universities and schools and build a nurturing environment for other people with aspergers. I live in ontario, and we are in the process of implementing new laws called the Accessibility for Ontarians with disabilities acts (AODA). At my particular institution the arts have been all over trying to get compliance, and be more accessible, whereas the science departments figure they've been accessible enough (and to a large degree are correct), and that the training is a waste of time. The implicit undercurrent is that the science departments already are accessible, because otherwise there wouldn't be any domestic scientists.
There is a lot to be said for treating even the mild cases though. Anger management is a major issue for a lot of people with autism, and they risk taking it out on subordinates in a fashion that to the rest of us is utterly irrational, equally a lack of social skills can limit their access to useful employment, and while they tend to need a different sort of office from the more socially amenable types, they can be remarkably productive, if they can get a job. It's also useful to know in advance the sorts of things you need to watch out for as a parent or in my case as a guy who fixed printers in an office full of students with some sorts of disability - people with autism will have odd movement behaviours which can be both distracting and disruptive, as well as have anger outburts if the printer doesn't work right away. In my experience they aren't good at personal responsibility either(you pushed the wrong button, it doesn't matter what you think the button should have done, that's not what it does, and getting mad at me over it doesn't teach you how to push the correct one next time type problems), but that is not part of any official diagnosis.
Re:screening for young engineers (Score:3, Insightful)
Asperger's? No problem.
Non-verbal autism? They aren't able to interact with the rest of the world.
Re:Labeling (Score:2, Insightful)
No, it doesn't "turn out" (Score:5, Insightful)
Validation comes when they take a bunch of blind samples in another set of test subjects and, using this test, try to determine whether the subjects are autistic -- without knowing in advance. If, and only if, that kind of test turns up positive, will it even be worth further study.
Too late. (Score:3, Insightful)
First off, there are plenty of parents who do "treat" autism with shit like Lupron [wikipedia.org] and chelation. It doesn't work, but it's still hell for the victims.
Secondly, a test gets us closer to a root cause and thus less credibility for the "vaccines cause autism" idiots like Andrew Wankfield and Jenny McCarthy -- who have managed to run vaccination rates down enough that measles and mumps are once again endemic in the UK and we're getting large outbreaks in the USA.
Finally, please understand that "geekishness" is at the very shallow end of the autistic spectrum -- at the other end, it's pretty much crippling.
Re:Labeling (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Labeling (Score:5, Insightful)
Also, right now, ASD clumps together symptoms even though they may have different etiologies. Having a biological test for a trait correlated with autism may help tease out the degree to which different conditions result in the same symptoms. When children test negative, but still exhibit ASD, we know there is another pathway to the condition that may be better served through different treatment.
This could be HUGE.
NOPE. the kids don't eat the same (Score:3, Insightful)
Autistic kids don't eat like the other kids. The other kids are normal, the autistic one needs to get the same old special stuff or they will not eat anything and become malnourished. We have 1 in the family. I think the study would need to feed the controls the same stuff as the autistic kids their are pair up with; I'm also curious if gender pairing matters at this age.
Re:No link between gut bacteria and autism (Score:3, Insightful)
My nephew was cured after being diagnosed with autism...
Then he never had autism to begin with.
Re:screening for young engineers (Score:4, Insightful)
If autism is a spectrum, then it indicates that there are a number of factors that determine "how autistic" someone is, and we don't know how many of those factors correlate to the test above. What if the test above only correlates to one of the unknown factors of autism? It could do more harm than good to label some kids as autistic, even if they had only one of those genes or environmental causes, or another kid as not autistic because he has all of the factors that would put him firmly in the non-verbal camp, but the one that is tested for?
You have to be really, really careful with correlations like this.
Re:Labeling (Score:5, Insightful)
As someone with bipolar disorder all I can say to you is "fuck you".
Diagnosis and treatment has allowed me to become a fully-functioning member of society rather than a burden on society and everyone around me. Absent medication and psychotherapy, I'm at the mercy of horrible mood swings and psychosis. My parents listened to a quack of a child psychologist who felt that diagnosing and "labelling" a 10-year old was more damaging than any disorder that might be present. The result of that was a slow decline into madness, and as an adult, I was too sick to seek treatment on my own, and not sick enough for involuntary commitment. I was finally diagnosed at 41 years old as a result of some circumstances that I don't care to share with someone like you. Do you have any idea what it's like to lose half your life to untreated mental illness?
Treatment probably saved my life - and there is no treatment without diagnosis and as you put it, "labelling". The suicide rates for persons with bipolar disorder are truly staggering - and those who don't take their own lives frequently have abbreviated lives due to irrational choices made as a result of the disorder.
"Trying harder" hardly factors into it when you're at the mercy of a very real and debilitating disorder.
Try a little empathy, fuckwit.
Re:3 fluid ounces (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Labeling (Score:3, Insightful)
Ah, good old Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome.