Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Francesca Rudkin: Trump's Autism comments are unhelpful

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Francesca Rudkin: Trump's Autism comments are unhelpful · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

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  Speaker 1: I didn't really want to touch on this yesterday. I
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  Speaker 1: really hope the story about President Trump coming out and
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  Speaker 1: declaring that pregnant mothers taking paracetamol was the cause of
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  Speaker 1: autism would just die quick death in the news, but
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  Speaker 1: it made an impact. As you may have seen, comments
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  Speaker 1: like Trump's are hugely frustrating and unhelpful. They cause concern
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  Speaker 1: among expectant mothers about the use of paracetamol, and, as
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  Speaker 1: stated by the New Zealand College of Midwives yesterday, high
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  Speaker 1: quality scientific evidence does not demonstrate a causal link or
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  Speaker 1: association between paracetamol use and autism or other development concerns.
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  Speaker 1: Large high quality studies, including population data from Sweden involving
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  Speaker 1: over two million children, found no increased risk of autism,
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  Speaker 1: ADHD or intellectual disability from paracetamol use during pregnancy. You
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  Speaker 1: could also ask mothers of autistic children, the ones I
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  Speaker 1: know are scratching their heads because they didn't use paracetamol
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  Speaker 1: when pregnant. Please, if you're a pregnant mum out there,
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  Speaker 1: follow their vaus of your doctor, not a politician. Reputable
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  Speaker 1: clinicians and researchers have been working for decas caids to
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  Speaker 1: understand this complex neurodevelopmental syndrome, and the widely held view
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  Speaker 1: of researches is that there is no single cause. Rather,
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  Speaker 1: it is thought to be the result of a complex
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  Speaker 1: mix of mostly genetic and to a lesser extent, environmental factors.
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  Speaker 1: When you have autism in the family, you don't think
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  Speaker 1: about cure or cause. You're focus on helping that person
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  Speaker 1: live their best life, and they can live a great life.
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  Speaker 1: The rise in reported autism cases is not a horrible
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  Speaker 1: crisis as Trump has described it. There is a simple
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  Speaker 1: reason why the number of cases has increased, and it's
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  Speaker 1: not because of vaccines, but rather the result of changes
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  Speaker 1: in the way autism is defined and assessed. In the
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  Speaker 1: nineteen eighties, autism was tightly defined and considered extremely rare.
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  Speaker 1: Then Asperger's syndrome, which is much milder in severity than
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  Speaker 1: classic autism and much more common, was added as a diagnosis,
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  Speaker 1: and then in twenty thirteen, Asperger syndrome was eliminated as
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  Speaker 1: a standalone diagnosis and folded into the newly introduced concept
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  Speaker 1: of autism spectrum disorder. Hence an increase in diagnosises under
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  Speaker 1: that one umbrella. That and more general awareness of ASD
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  Speaker 1: has led to more people getting themselves or their children assessed.
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  Speaker 1: And yes, the difficulty of diagnosing autism can lead to
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  Speaker 1: misdiagnosis as well, but implying autism is something to fear,
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  Speaker 1: something that needs to be raised, is offensive. Yes, there
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  Speaker 1: are high support need cases which are hugely challenging for families,
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  Speaker 1: and yes, living with the disability in a world that
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  Speaker 1: isn't designed for you is difficult. But with support, autistic
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  Speaker 1: people live productive, interesting and rich lives, and quite frankly,
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  Speaker 1: the world would be much less without them. For more
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