Autism Researcher Must Hand Over Research Material
[Thanks to Richard Miles for providing a translation of this article into English and to Vanessa King for this clear definition of DAMP. Gillberg is on the medical advisory board of a well-known autism research fundraising organization.]
http://www.svd.se/dynamiskt/inrikes/did_4869648.asp
The row regarding Professor Christopher Gillberg’s research has taken
a new turn.
The Gothenburg Court has decided that the University has to hand over some parts to Sociologist Eva Karfe, at the Lunds University, who has put forward suspicions regarding research fraud by Gillberg.
Gillberg’s research has been largely responsible for so-called DAMP* children being treated with amongst other things, amphetamines.
The same research papers are being given to a paediatrician, Leif Elinder, in Uppsala. Elinder’s complaint is that the extensive treatment programme has been started with amphetamines that can cause serious side effects and cause future drug problems.
The court has ruled that part of the material can be handed over, occupying shelf space 22 metres long, provided the secrecy clause is adheredto.
The University had previously refused to hand over the papers on those grounds.
Eva Karfe has pointed out that the numbers in the control group increased between the first and the last follow up study. Therefore she suspects that the researchers have added children who did not belong in the original group.
She also criticises the composition of research groups.
In the control group more than half were girls, mostly from ordered and economically decent conditions, while the DAMP group were 75% boys from broken families and underprivileged areas.
Eva Karfe has written some articles debating the research, and in these she has said if you declare that 10% of all children suffer from a never-before diagnosed neuro-psychiatric congenital organic disorder, which disadvantages the future life of those affected, and necessitates treatment with strong narcotics, one must realize that sooner or later somebody will demand that you put your cards on the table.
* Disorder of Attention and Motor Perception. It is an autistic spectrum disorder - on a par of severity with Asperger’s. The principal characteristics of this disorder are the motor difficulties the children suffer coupled with attention deficit features. This is not usually accompanied by hyperactivity, but is most likely to be hypoactivity (underactivity). Currently, there is no consensus of diagnosis.
Treatment with methamphetamines is strongly contraindicated [not suitable for use in treatment] as these children suffer from very high levels of anxiety, compulsive behaviours and are prone to suicide. Drugs such as Ritalin would exacerbate such difficulties.
Instead, behavioural therapy is a preferable treatment with emphasis on secondary treatments specific to the difficulties of dyslexia anddyspraxia.
Sadly, the paucity of funding in this regard means that many clinicians choose to ignore these guidelines for treatment (which were laid down by Gillberg) and instead opt for the cheaper treatment of methamphetamines, fluoxetine (Prozac) and SSRIs.
unfortunately...
DAMP was new to me with this article.
From the sounds of it, I would say it almost sounds like a combination of ADD and dyspraxia.
I would say that the best place to find out more information would be on the Scandinavian sites.
I’ve never heard of DAMP before, yet it fits my 11 year old to a T. I did a web seacrch and got mostly Danish web-sites, but found a little more information from a U.K. web site. Do you possibly have any idea where I can learn more about this?