11. Validation of the phenomenon of autistic regression using home videotapes (2005)

Goes number 11; Taylor number 11

Werner E, Dawson G. Validation of the phenomenon of autistic regression using home videotapes. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2005 Aug;62(8):889-95.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16061766

This actually is a well-done and interesting paper that took advantage of a technological change (affordable video cameras) to investigate the phenomenon of autistic regression, using  56 children's first and second birthday party videos.  Dawson and Werner were able to document the change in 15 children who regressed.

Does this paper then validate the notion that "vaccines can cause autism"?  Of course not.  

I wonder why the list-makers included this one.  I am assuming some reasoning along the lines of:

1. The regression occurs around the time of one-year-old vaccines
2. There is a form of autism that has a period of normal development followed by regression
3. Therefore, vaccines cause autism.

It's the correlation equals causation fallacy. 

For those of you who are interested in more recent work on developmental trajectories in autism, this robust 2012 paper might be of interest:

Fountain C, Winter AS, Bearman PS. Six developmental trajectories characterize children with autism. Pediatrics. 2012 May;129(5):e1112-20. Epub 2012 Apr 2.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22473372

 

 

Comments

[Roger Kulp]

My internet has been out a few weeks,just getting caught up with a few blogs.This is great,the way you're putting all these articles up in one place.

One thing that is never mentioned by the antivaxers,and rarely mentioned by those who debunk them,is that regression is often a lifelong thing,and can often happen for the first time before the vaccines antivax parents equate with "causing" autism.My mother told me she noticed my first regression during a bout of acute meningitis I had at the age of six months,apparently I had been developing unusually fast before then.Regression is a lifelong thing,something that I have rarely seen anybody mention.Usually there are either seizures,or other multiple coexisting medical problems that can trigger it at any times.Regressive autism means serious disease.

Regressive autism needs to be considered its own distinct entity,with all of the known causes as subcategories.These are usually genetic.There are metabolic diseases,like mitochondrial disease,or those involving folate,like I have been found to have.

http://www.nature.com/mp/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/mp2011175a.html

There are channelopathies

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21620773

And there is an emerging syndrome seen in those who have a family history of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's,as well as many other causes we are only now learning about.