"Tenfold increase in cases of autism alarms doctors"

 Dangers of pollution, pesticides and eating habits must be investigated to
 find cause of disorder, says leading academic

 An alarming 10-fold increase in cases of autism over the past decade prompted
 a leading academic to call for new research yesterday to establish the cause
 of the lifelong developmental disorder.

 Dr Shattock's warning about the rise in autism followed an analysis of 6,000
 people on the Autism Research Unit's database, which was published yesterday.

 Dr Shattock, director of the Autism Research Unit at the University of
 Sunderland, said such a steep rise was unlikely to be caused simply by changes
 in diagnostic practice or greater awareness about the condition, which can
 result in severe language, behavioural and socialisation problems.

 "There are many possible reasons. Clearly, if there is an increase in numbers
 there must be environmental factors involved and there are many possibilities,
 all of which need to be explored.

 A recent study in California reported a 273 per cent increase in cases of autism
 over 10 years and British research, published earlier this year, showed a sevenfold
 increase between 1988 and 1999 in newly diagnosed boys aged two to five.

 Charities such as the National Autistic Society also reported what appears to be
 a big rise in the prevalence of autism, particularly the more severe rather than
 the more subtle forms, and suggested that increased diagnosis did not explain the
 increase.

 Calls to the society's helpline have tripled in the past two years from 800 calls
 a month to more than 2,500. Eileen Hopkins, its director of development and outreach,
 added: "Anecdotally over the past 10 years we have seen a massive rise in numbers
 referring themselves to organisations like ours. Teachers working in the field have
 said they used to deal with one case a term, but now they see one child a week."

 By Lorna Duckworth, Social Affairs Correspondent
 05 April 2001

 "The Independent"

----------------------------------------------

 `Perceptions' note:

 Notice how the _doctors_ fight shy of suggesting that _doctors'_ past
 hooking of the mothers, and in many cases _their_ mothers, on to
 addictive personality weakening drugs, for doctors' profit, could have 
 anything to do with increased autism incidence!

 This despite their suggesting almost everything else under the sun
 as possible culprit.

 maybe check www.perceptions.couk.com/autinc.txt
     
----------------------------------------------
     
 Evidence page for 

 www.perceptions.couk.com/medical.html

----------------------------------------------

              FURTHER REFERENCES

  GO - "search perceptions" - in SEARCH-ENGINE


file-ID www.perceptions.couk.com/mindbenders.txt