What Some Say Causes Autism

A recent cohort study claims to have found a cause of autism. Many stand to benefit from this research. Will it help autistics?

Transcript

When I first saw it I thought it was a joke. Then it seemed just plain irresponsible. After looking into it I found out it’s real and I’m still trying to get over it.

It was a commercial on cable tv that got my attention. It invited autistic viewers and/or their parents to contact a law firm to participate in a class action lawsuit against companies that caused autism.  

This episode is about how a few studies have now lead to lawsuits that can be as or more damaging than the vaccine-causes-autism hoax. Just when we hoped it wouldn’t get any worse.

This is one of those times when I’m embarrassed to be a lawyer. More than embarrassed, sick.

Yes, in case you haven’t heard yet, a common painkiller, acetaminophen, causes autism and ADHD. Or so do some researchers and masses of lawyers say. 

Science still has questions about how acetaminophen works in the body. In other words, they don’t have all the answers they need to prove a connection with autism or ADHD. 

The UK’s NHS has already come out and said there is no link between autism and acetaminophen aka paracetamol in the UK. The US’s NIH was among those that funded some of the studies that concluded there is a causation between the medication and autism and ADHD.

Who’s getting sued? So far Walmart, Costco, CVS, Johnson and Johnson, any manufacturers of generic Acetaminophen.

Before I get to the research, I want to say a few things about the legal basis for this kind of lawsuit.

In order to succeed in a lawsuit for money damages, you have to prove there was an injury and that the defendant caused it. 

Take a moment and think about that in this context. 

What this says to me is that all these Plaintiffs think they have to do is prove that acetaminophen causes autism because autism in itself is damage.

In other words, a significant part of the research and legal world considers it a given that autistics are damaged goods. Literally. 

After all, one or more expert witnesses will testify that autistics lack compassion, can’t communicate, have no imagination, have no emotions, can’t look people in the eye, to name a few. They may even say that autism is a psychiatric disorder much like schizophrenia. These experts will get it wrong. 

I’m guessing the judge, the jury, the participants will assume that autism is something bad that happens to you because someone did something wrong.

As autistics we already know about common biases. It’s why so many of us don’t tell people who we are. 

It’s ironic that a world that chides us for black and white thinking labels autistics as bad and non-autistics as good, autistics as unfeeling, non-autistics as feeling appropriately, autistics as abnormal, non-autistics as normal.

What started this and got so many lawyers salivating? A few studies claiming to prove a link between acetaminophen and autism and ADHD. Lawyers think about what the settlement value is to large companies who’d be hurt by adverse publicity, true or not.

These studies were questionable from the beginning. In one study the researchers concluded that acetaminophen is linked to autism and ADHD in boys, but only ADHD in girls. There it is.

One study concluded that children with autism are four times more likely to have been exposed to acetaminophen in utero. See, to me, that is not causation. It doesn’t establish a connection.

One law firm website suggests that the more acetaminophen that a mother used the higher the payout. Really? Did they just suggest that a mother say she used a lot of acetaminophen? That same law firm also says that each person who sues could get as much as $2 million as a settlement.

Here’s a quote from one law firm website: “Children born with severe autism often require life-long care, which can dramatically increase the potential settlement value of a case.”

We know what that means because of course, and I’m being sarcastic, some autistic people don’t need care or assistance or anything so basically they’re worthless, at least in a lawsuit.

The study funded by the NIH tested for acetaminophen in umbilical cord blood at the time of a baby’s birth. The baby was not tested. 

Interestingly all of the umbilical cord blood that was sampled had some amount of acetaminophen.

There was no data gathered about how much or how often the pregnant mother used the drug. There was no data on what amount of acetaminophen “causes” autism. There was no mention of whether the mothers were given acetaminophen during labor.

Years later researchers determined how many of the children, as reported by their parents, had autistic traits (self-report) and/or ADHD. 

This is what’s called a cohort study, meaning, a study of a group of people over time. 

Cohort studies are limited to finding an association between an exposure and an outcome. They don’t prove cause and effect. That's because other things that weren’t considered may be the cause of both.

To get an eye-opening (and humorous) feel for what is meant by “association” in this context, do an online search for spurious correlations. You can find a website by Tyler Vigen who’s put together dozens of examples of correlations that prove nothing. For example, he shows with a graph that there is a correlation between per capita cheese consumption and the number of people who died by becoming tangled in their bedsheets. Check it out.

Back to the studies. 

A whole bunch of researchers signed on to the NIH study and others did studies of their own. 

One group of researchers who questioned the study’s conclusions proved that the amount of acetaminophen in the cord blood did not equal the amount that was metabolized by the unborn child. 

All we have to do to have a successful lawsuit is overlook the intervening years between birth and childhood, ignore other potential causes, discredit studies that don’t support the premise, oh yes and play on the stereotypes that there is something deeply flawed in autistics and people with ADHD.

While doing this research I found there are some studies that say that use of acetaminophen by children causes autism. It gets better: At least one researcher stated with certainty that the current so-called epidemic of autism diagnoses is not only caused by acetaminophen but it’s made worse by amoxicillin!

Other studies related to prenatal acetaminophen conclude that it causes low birth weight and in different studies that it causes obesity. (OMG) Others attributed asthma and pre-term births to this pain reliever.

I’m not suggesting that acetaminophen or other drugs and chemicals are harmless when taken by a pregnant woman or by a child. Good research shows the toxicity of many drugs and usually refers to high dosages or long-term use.

Yet there are even more studies and unproven conclusions about the cause of autism:

Aluminum, copper, mercury, aluminum in vaccines, estrogen, testosterone, antibiotics, and I’m sure there are others. You might even have heard of some others yourself.

These acetaminophen lawsuits demonstrate what too many people already believe to be true. That when some lawyers in the US smell money they cease to care about the truth. It’s all about the cash. Kind of like some researchers.

What causes autism? The promise of money. That’s all it takes to come up with causes dressed up as facts regardless of the quality of the research. Regardless of the consequences to autistics.

Bad research just means we need more research so give us more money. Good research means we need to refute it so give us more money. Either way can lead to lawsuits and more money. Very little of this goes to autistics.

I appreciate good research and the neurobiologists and others who challenge false assumptions and hold researchers accountable to the scientific method.

Most of us don’t care what causes autism. It won’t change our lives. It won’t help us communicate better. It won’t help us with our daily challenges. 

We’re not damaged. We’re not less-than. We are unrealized human potential.

The reality is that the stereotypes of autistics will continue as long as they have monetary value. That’s no surprise.

I’m on Twitter @anautisticwoman or you can email me at info@theatusiticwoman.com. Make sure you share this podcast with your friends and family. Let’s help people understand what it’s like to be autistic.

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