[PedOncoDoc]

The lack of medical/scientific evidence for the MMR vaccine as causality of autism is old news in the medical world, especially in pediatrics. We've had the challenge of explaining the risks of vaccine and dispelling the myths about their association with autism. The best medical evidence arguing against comes from Scandinavia where socialized medicine has allowed for extensive medical record keeping on a national level. There was no change in frequency of diagnosis of autism with the introduction of the MMR vaccine in these countries. What has led to more diagnoses of autism spectrum disorder is the loosening of diagnostic criteria for making a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder.

There are many autistic people in the world, and as we look deeper into autism the more inclusive we are in making the diagnosis; just the other day I saw a road-side billboard stating that every 20 seconds a child is diagnosed with autism. I don't know if we are being too inclusive in the diagnosis anymore, like with ADHD. It seems that if someone has an agenda and child who is slightly socially awkward he can find a doctor to diagnose him with autism spectrum disorder.

I truly believe the cause of autism to be multifactorial - genetic, biologic and environmental. For some reason we cannot explain, autistic people process their reality different than the rest of us - it provides for a challenging life for the child and family. Some of these children have amazing talents or provide very profound observations about life and the world around them. Others do not speak and are barely functional.

It is only natural for a parent to want a cause for their child's disorder or disability - that is what has lead to all of the malpractice lawsuits surrounding cerebral palsy and faulting obstetricians (also shown to not be true.) When someone says they have scientific proof of a cause for their child's condition, parents are going to cling to it. Whenever I have to sit a family down and tell them their child has cancer I make sure to volunteer that there is nothing that directly caused the disease or that could have been done to prevent it, as every parent is wondering why their child became sick. After hearing the news, many parents appear more at ease with the discussion, as if they were feeling guilty for not stopping their child from getting a relatively rare disease.

My $.02, YMMV.