Goes number 9; Taylor number 9
Herbert MR, Autism: A Brain Disorder, or A Disorder That Affects the Brain? Clinical Neuropsychiatry 2005 2:(6) 354-379
http://www.clinicalneuropsychiatry.org/ Not indexed in PubMed
Download Herbert-autismbrainoraffectingbrain
This is essentially one long opinion piece, draped in sciencey-sounding language.
Herbert frames autism causation as a false dichotomy:
"Strongly genetic, brain-based" (autism is a brain-based disorder)
versus
"Genetically influenced, systemic" (autism is a disorder (or better, syndrome or condition) that affects the brain (and more)
I say this is a false dichotomy because Herbert ignores other possiblities, such as:
"Strongly genetic and systemic"
and
"Genetically influenced and brain-based"
In this paper, Herbert claims that says that most people consider comorbidities to be coincidental. She goes on to claim, without providing supporting evidence, that GI issues and immune dysfunction are common comorbidities. Since the notion of GI issues and immune dysfunction are key to her argument that autism is "systemic", she must back those claims. Since she doesn't, this is an opinion piece rather than a study or review.
Another point is that she does not mention vaccines even once in the paper. However, she does mention "toxins, infectious agents, or other stressors".
Does this paper "demonstrate that vaccines can cause autism"? No. This paper is merely Herbert's notions about autism causation.
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