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Asperger Syndrome Tied To Low Cortisol Levels
caffiend666 writes "According to a Health Day article, low levels of a stress hormone may be responsible for the obsession with routine and dislike for new experiences common in children with a certain type of autism. 'This study suggests that children with AS may not adjust normally to the challenge of a new environment on waking,' study researcher David Jessop, from the University of Bristol, said in the news release. 'This may affect the way they subsequently engage with the world around them.'"
Wait, What?! They can cure my Asperger's?! I DONT WANT THEM TO! I like everything the way it is! LEAVE ME ALONE! AHHHHHHHHHH
"When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
... to prevent AS in my own children I should make their infancy more stressful? Like run them through mazes with electrodes along the wrong routes or something?
FTFA:
But as a diagnosed asperger's sufferer myself, NONONONONONONONO! This is EXACTLY the type of wrong response we've been getting all along to this disease. No, you don't "steer the children away" from situations, you train them to find other ways to deal with the situation. And you work on research to find other ways to increase Cortisol production.
I think it would help mightily if the researchers on High Functioning Autism, actually had High Functioning Autism themselves. Then maybe we'd have suggestions that would really help in the real world.
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
Anyway....
I never see these studies that say they weed out child abuse. I know for a fact (sorry no cites or sites and I'm relying on personal experience here ... ) that child abuse will result in the same symptoms as Asperger's. That's what I'm wondering. You have one crowd who's looking for a biological reason and another who's looking for a behavioral.
I don't know what to say. We're complex and any studies like this needs to be taken with a grain of salt or two.
I thought Asperger's was usually linked to anti-social techies, but working in the IT business is damn stressful.
How can this every be correct?
*sigh*
And every SINGLE goddamn Aspergers-related article will result in a million awful (as in no good at it) trolls crawling out of ED pretending to hold a candle to GNAA.
Basically, you just said "maybe... maybe not".
Yup, I'm guessing that administering cortisol was beyond the scope of the experiment. We won't know the answer until someone tries it.
This is good science. It leaves the reader with more questions than it answered. That means MORE FUNDING!
One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
If I'm reading them correctly, the studies being quoted (BTW, here's one of them if you have ScienceDirect) are NOT saying that Asperger's can be cured or prevented by altering a child's exposure to stress. They're saying Asperger's brains have a different neurochemical reaction to sudden changes than ordinary brains do.
1: This may (or may not) point toward changing how Asperger's kids are trained to deal with stress.
2: More interesting to me, this may point to targeted pharmaceuticals able to provide long-term remission.
3: This may just be a side effect of Asperger's, and the actual cause is somewhere else entirely.
Is Cortisol related to Prednisone? 40 mg of Prednisone made me *feel* Autistic - I couldn't look at people when they were talking, it was too overstimulating to see their lips move while I listened to their voice.
Hmm, I always thought it was contagious and this was how it was contracted:
http://i.somethingawful.com/u/elpintogrande/july07/aspergersdefinition.gif
...does this ever fit.
Anecdotally--
He is on a medication but boy is that first 15 minutes after waking up every morning freaking difficult.
I can relate to him usually quite well as I'm sure I'm somewhere on the A.S.D. line (never diagnosed though).
It is my job in the morning, every morning, to attempt to calmly wake him up and get his one pill into his system ASAP so he can get his routine started. ... not that the rest of the day is a cakewalk.
In my view (and I have many AS traits), Asperger's Syndrome is not a bad thing - AS people are more creative, more courageous and morally/ethically more daring than the average (so-called neurotypical) person. AS people are disproportionately more responsible for human advancements. They're also very honest (mostly not capable of lying and conversely, naively trusting that everybody else is like them, unable to lie).
We need more aspies, not less.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
Looking around, Cortisol is one of those good/bad things.
http://www.south-florida-personal-trainer.com/stress.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cortisol
Looks like it's mostly understood on a physical level with only a little understood about it's neurological impacts. Physically, it sounds like it tells your body to 'break down and rebuild'. A little bit of cortisol, it works like growth hormone. A lot of cortisol, your body ends up useless mush. I can imagine no cortisol means your body is basically incapable of new things; Wikipedia lists low-cortisol impacts like Addison's_disease, Hypoglycemia , and learning impairment. Sounds like the researchers are taking a physical effect and applying it mentally as well.
Here's to losing my Karma Bonus again....
And you work on research to find other ways to increase Cortisol production.
Rather than cortisol deficient. Perhaps "normal" levels simply cause particular anxiety.
Deleted
It's odd the amount of geeks that seem eager to be diagnosed with Aspergers... as if that excuses their perceived failings, allows them to blame it on a condition they have no control over... or perhaps it simply is a badge of being a 'true' geek.
Even worse, the popularity of Asperger's as a self-diagnosis among geeks prevents them from getting a better grasp on their problems. Many other causes can produce similar symptoms, and even when a diagnosis of Asperger's is accurate, it isn't the last word on a person's mental health. An Aspie can have other psychological problems.
For instance, I had long thought I might be an Aspie, and when I ended up in therapy, I waited to see if my therapist mentioned it. (On my first visit, I spotted a couple of books about Asperger's on her bookshelf, so I figured she would be a good check on my self-diagnosis.) After several visits she did mention that my description of my childhood experiences sounded like I could have Asperger's, and she knew an authority on Asperger's who could screen me. At the time, my health insurance wouldn't cover the screening (a couple thousand bucks,) so I basically asked, is the screening worth it? She said it would be interesting to have a more expert opinion on whether it was really Asperger's, but:
This from a therapist who had books about Asperger's on her shelf and who suggested I get screened for it without any prompting on my part. Clearly she was interested in Asperger's and knowledgable about it. She just didn't think it was that important for my further development.
Contrast that with the many geeks who (without any professional diagnosis) use Asperger's to wholly define their past experience and future potential.
Not at all. But I wouldn't try to protect the child from ever needing to read.
Picture a journalist in his or her natural habitat: in an office in front of Facebook. The journalist sees a possible story (on their screen). Their natural curiosity means they want to know the story behind "robs567 says: Actually, I can't be a 'fag.' I am a female web designer, and I do not beat my kids. Despite what you granola-eating hippies say, spanking is good and, unlike typical libtards, I have the citation right here. Have some reality with your stfu." Immediately the journalist is on move, and an investigation is begun; the journalist moves their computer mouse. Where has a curious editorial on a blog lead them? To news! However, this bit of news has been taken by one 'New Scientist'. They are not deterred, for within the article are what journalists call "key words." And it's these key words that they use to get the scoop! Employing both Google and their marketing department, the journalist combines these "key words" until a news story is created. A breaking news story is obviously better than an old stuffy one, so they use an old journalistic technique: called "sort by date." Eventually, the journalist finds "cortisol" and "autism" and "2008," and presto: breaking news!