Savage responds
July 21st, 2008, 11:07 am · 5 Comments · posted by sammiller
“My comments about autism were meant to boldly awaken parents and children to the medical community’s attempt to label too many children or adults as “autistic.”
“Just as some drug companies have overdiagnosed “ADD” and “ADHD” to peddle dangerous speed-like drugs to children as young as 4 years of age, this cartel of doctors and drug companies is now creating a national panic by overdiagnosing “autism, for which there is no definitive medical diagnosis!
“Many children are being victimized by being diagnosed with an “illness” which may not exist, in all cases. Just a few weeks ago doctors recommended dangerous anti-cholesterol drugs for children as young as 2 years of age! Without any scientific studies on the possible dangers of such drugs on children, corrupt doctors made this controversial, unscientific recommendation.
“Increasingly, our children are being used as profit centers by a greedy, corrupt medical/pharmaceutical establishment. As the brother of a severely disabled person who suffered and died in a New York “snake-pit” of a “mental hospital,” I know first-hand what true disability is.
“To permit greedy doctors to include children in medical categories which may not be appropriate is a crime against that child and their family. Let the truly autistic be treated. Let the falsely diagnosed be free.”
He also posts an article from the blog Skeptico headlined “Autism epidemic? What autism epidemic,” and this story from the conservative news site Townhall.com.
Is the autism prevalence rate really a political issue, or is this simple Michael Savage filling time?
July 21st, 2008 at 10:45 pm
What a moron! If Savage’s main premise is that drug companies want to sell more drugs, so doctors co-conspire by mis-diagnosing children with autism, he has overlooked one HUGE FACT…….DRUGS ARE NOT USED IN THE TREATMENT OF AUTISM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And another fact that he’s ignored: Doctors ignore autism!!!!!!!!!!!!! The medical community is so behind on the causes and treatments of autism, the only thing to offer children with autsim is behavioral therapy and some nutritional therapies. In fact, the one thing that comes out of a diagnosis of autism is a leariness of vaccinations, WHICH IS A HUGE BLOW TO BIG PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES!!! Savage’s premise is 100% wrong.
July 22nd, 2008 at 7:23 am
Savage is wrong. As Jennifer Gonzales points out, doctors actually ignore autism, and have no real treatments to offer. And no one ever prescribed any sort of drug for my autistic son.
The general attitude of the medical industry appears to be that, instead of rushing to either exploit or help autistic kids, they wish they’d just go away. And the only “therapies” offered at the moment are behavioral, or nutritional; big pharmaceutical companies don’t make any money off that.
July 22nd, 2008 at 9:39 am
Savage’s ideas don’t explain why, more often than not, parents with autistic children have and are capable of rearing typical children any more than parents with a “brat” also have typical children. Good upbringing produces a “better” behaved child than bad upbringing, typical or autistic. The medical community, mostly behavioral therapy but sometimes medication, gives people with autism tools to help them compensate for their disability. Much like a wheelchair is a tool for people with paralysis to get around. Good parenting of an autistic child includes seeking out and sacrificing time and money for those services to help their child thrive as an adult.
July 22nd, 2008 at 10:02 am
The very fact that Savage can equate a disability (be it autism, retardation or some other neurological dysfunction) with “brattiness” shows that the man has his head firmly rammed up his posterior.
September 17th, 2008 at 9:28 am
If there were a drug to help or cure Autism,there would be a line outside what ever drug store carried this particular drug.Just like the rest of the world Savage is ready and willing to sweep Autism under the rug, and try to blame other resources.There is currently not a drug in this country that can cure Autism. TO :Savage as a Doctor you have a Drug Handbook,maybe you need to read it and let parents know which drug is the cure,then you get your notoriety that you seek.Stop using innocent Children to hype your career.