This Week's Top Posts

With the study on early thimerasol exposure and neuropsychological outcomes in the New England Journal of Medicine published on Thursday, the case of the school aide against 6-year-old Nathan Darnell going to court on Tuesday, Jenny McCarthy making autism news every day, and a lot, lot more, it was a busy week.

• Court Hearing for 6 Year Old Autistic Boy is Sept 25
  Criminal charges against Nathan Darnell were dropped.
• Autism Shot, Autism Whisperer, Autism What?
  The MMR vaccine, Jim Carrey (according to Jenny McCarthy).
• Getting Better All the Time
  A new study co-authored by Paul Shattuck notes that suggests that, over the course of their lives, autistic persons grow and change.
• Does Jenny McCarthy Have (Mild) Asperger Syndrome?
  No consensus, lots of questions.
• Institutional Autism
  As autism in children with Institutional Autism is so closely correlated to their environment (an orphanage or hospital, for instance), is it at all misleading to say that these children have a form of autism?
• No Causal Association Between Early Exposure to Mercury and Neuropsychological Outcomes
  A new study published in the September 27th New England Journal of Medicine does not support a link between early thimerasol exposure and neuropsychological deficits in children
• Jenny, We Hardly Knew Ye
  Like countless other Americans, McCarthy has transformed herself from breast-baring to breast-beating-at-the-thought-of-my-poor-child-ravished-by-autism…… And she has done this by performing a most American activity, by refashioning her very self (without silicone) in a kind of extreme makeover.
• Who’s Afraid of Genetic Testing?
  What might such testing reveal about the causes of autism?
• CDC Officials Cleared of Vaccine Misconduct
  Officials from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta did not interfere with reviews of vaccines safety by the Institute of Medicine, nor did they cover up alleged findings linking thimerosal to autism.

And, on September 25th, Look Me in the Eye: An Aspergian Book Author Writes About Books, Asperger’s, Autism, and Life, John Elder Robison’s memoir of growing up with Asperger’s (before knowing that he had Asperger’s), was published. Happy last day of September!