Customer Reviews

Defeating Autism: A Damaging Delusion

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This book's author has a specific point-of-view regarding the MMR/mercury debates and autism. With that said, this book is a great overview of the fallacies inherent within autism, MMR/mercury/chelation research, and the neurodiversity movement. Well-researched and thorough. Also, the prose is effectively written and easy to read. I highly recommend this book for those interested in an overview of the arguments against DAN! and similar research agendas.

It's a intelligent and informative book. It was nice to find a book about Autism that doesn't just give the popular answers but science based evidence.

Defeating Autism is a very timely book. People must find ways of dealing with their Autistic family members. There will not be a "magic bullet" for many years. A lot of damage has been done with the anti-vaccine litigation. Parents did not mean to do it but they made all Autistic people sound like "basket cases" which made it hard for some adult Autistics to do complete disclosure with potential employees because of all the desparate dialog. It is a very difficult syndrome to deal with. After 25 years I still am not sure what my daughters abilities really are. I get surprises every day when I think I have it nailed down. Realistic books like this one and Unstrange Minds will get rid of the guilt complex of Autism. I am so glad I did not go "banana's" on wild diets and treatments. Maybe I would have if I was unfortunate to have a child with a severe case who was not able to talk,etc, I am very thankful that my adult person with Autism can function as well as she can. It does not help much in getting and keeping a job but she can take care of herself fairly well.

In the tradition of Paull Offit's excellent book," Autism's False Prophets: Bad science, risky medicine and the search for a cure", Fitzpatrick provides a stunningly critical account of the "Defeat Autism Now!"movement. The link between parental rejection of orthodox medicine, parental anger and inability to accept their child with autism is striking. He provides a paragraph or two description of eight prominent American and seven British "biomedical" autism doctors. Most striking is that almost none of them have specific training and credentials in pediatrics or autism. Many are professionals in other fields who parented a child with autism, which accounts for their new direction. Equally arresting is the fact that their treatment claims are outlandish.

His final chapter discusses questions parents, professionals and advocacy groups should ask about proposed treatments. For parents, he suggests:
Is there a coherent scientific rationale? There are often pseudoscientific rationales reminiscent of quack medical treatments, such as the Orgone Box and crystals for channeling deceased individuals.

Does it work? There are no controlled studies of most autism biomedical treatments.

Is it safe? He opens the book describing the case of a child with autism who died while undergoing chelation treatment.

How much will it cost? He notes that the standard battery of laboratory tests on blood samples of children with autism in one UK clinic (Autism File) cost $2615, much of which he describes as "high tech hokum."

Is there any independent evaluation? Almost never has there been an independent evaluation of "biomedical" treatment effects.

You have to read the book's final paragraph for yourself. It is a very moving, thoughtful, humane approach to parenting a child with autism.Making Sense of Autism

I was really hoping to read a thoughtful comparison of the various models of possible etiologies and possible treatments. The book is priced and marketed as if it is a medical review of autism etiology and therapy. The data for everything is so sketchy, I thought that this was a book that would review the limited evidence and allow me to compare and contrast potential ways to invest limited resources of time, money, and energy. Instead it seems to be entirely negative reviews without any discussion of what does work or for whom. I was particularly disappointed in the section covering behavioral therapies. ABA was glanced over and only in its 40 hour/week original format and DIR and RDI were entirely unmentioned. If you could return a book, I would.