Jump to content
The Corroboree
Auxin

Circumcision causes autism and ADHD?

Recommended Posts

Unusual finding.

Ritual circumcision linked to increased risk of autism in young boys

Research published today by the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine suggests that circumcised boys are more likely than intact boys to develop autism spectrum disorder (ASD) before the age of 10. Risk is particularly high for infantile autism before the age of five. The research was carried out in Denmark among a cohort of all children born between 1994 and 2003. During the study over 340,000 boys were followed up to the age of nine between 1994 and 2013 and almost 5,000 cases of ASD were diagnosed. The study showed that regardless of cultural background circumcised boys may run a greater risk of developing ASD. The researchers also made an unexpected observation of an increased risk of hyperactivity disorder among circumcised boys in non-Muslim families.

Professor Morten Frisch of the Statens Serum Institut, Copenhagen, who led the research, said: "Our investigation was prompted by the combination of recent animal findings linking a single painful injury to lifelong deficits in stress response and a study showing a strong, positive correlation between a country's neonatal male circumcision rate and its prevalence of ASD in boys."

Today it is considered unacceptable practice to circumcise boys without proper pain relief but none of the most common interventions used to reduce circumcision pain completely eliminates it and some boys will endure strongly painful circumcisions. The researchers say that the pain associated with circumcision in very young babies is likely to be more severe during the operation and post-operatively.

Painful experiences in neonates have been shown in animal and human studies to be associated with long-term alterations in pain perception, a characteristic often encountered among children with ASD.

"Possible mechanisms linking early life pain and stress to an increased risk of neurodevelopmental, behavioural or psychological problems in later life remain incompletely conceptualised," said Professor Frisch. "Given the widespread practice of non-therapeutic circumcision in infancy and childhood around the world, our findings should prompt other researchers to examine the possibility that circumcision trauma in infancy or early childhood might carry an increased risk of serious neurodevelopmental and psychological consequences."

[Link]

I find it interesting, though, that they seem to flatly ignore the possibility that the correlation may exist by a biological mechanism rather than psychological. Little fun flap producing hormones or neurological impulses that effect the brain, etc.

  • Like 3

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

That is still only 1.47%. A study published in the JAMA Pediatrics says that the increase is due to the change in reporting of the condition. Autism is not sex selective so how can it be related to circumcision.

Stefan N. Hansen, Diana E. Schendel, Erik T. Parner. Explaining the Increase in the Prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorders. JAMA Pediatrics, 2014; DOI:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2014.1893

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I was diagnosed ADD and Aspergers (on the autism spectrum) and im uncircumsiced.

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Autism is not sex selective so how can it be related to circumcision.

Quite simply, really. As they said - among boys circumcision increases risk. They didnt propose that it was the only possible cause or trigger, they didnt even directly state that it was a cause but just that it increases risk.

Oh, and autism is sex selective. 43 ASD boys for each 10 girls [before splitting into sub-groups].

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

It's not sex selective, if that was the case then girls would not have it; it's simply more prevalent in boys than girls. Some studies believe one of the reasons girls are diagnosed with it less often is, with lower order spectrum disorders, that girls by nature have quite differing social skills to boys, especially at a younger age.

Much of the research into ASD is still young (awareness of the condition not really coming into light until the early nineties). So to say circumcision even increases the risk is vague. The approximation of population with ASD sits at around 1%, so even 5,000 out of 340, 000 is only an increase of 0.47%. One study containing 340 000 boys to determine the risk of circumcision to increase the likelihood of getting ASD is not something to cite. That is such a small sample size, considering the scope and broad nature of the condition.

Meng-Chuan Lai, Michael V. Lombardo, Bonnie Auyeung, Bhismadev Chakrabarti, Simon Baron-Cohen, Sex/Gender Differences and Autism: Setting the Scene for Future Research, Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, Volume 54, Issue 1, January 2015, Pages 11-24, ISSN 0890-8567, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2014.10.003.
(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0890856714007254).

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

It's not sex selective, if that was the case then girls would not have it; it's simply more prevalent in boys than girls.

That's actually what sex-selective means. If it were sex-specific, then it would only affect one gender.

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Sorry got my definitions crossed. Either way, a lot of recent studies are swaying towards ASD prevalence in boys being more towards the fact that young girls have a different set of social skills than boys, therefore recognising the condition in boys is slightly easier to diagnose.

I have in no way got a great deal of knowledge of neurological or genetic diseases, but from a general scientific point of view I just think saying circumcision increases the risk of ASD in a sample size of 340, 000 is vague. As I said, 5, 000 in 340, 000 is 1.47%. The current estimate being 1% of people being affected by ASD, so boys who have undergone circumcision only increase the risk by 0.47%. Not exactly definitive.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

The most indicative part of what I took from that is the causation of trauma. I'm thinking of Erikson's Stages of Psychosocial Development http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erikson's_stages_of_psychosocial_development and it just occurred to me also that as far as I've noticed (which is to say with absolutely NO scientific evidence, only rank amateur observation) I've never seen someone diagnosed autism spectrum that was overweight. Sorry train of thought. But I do wonder what deep psychological impact circumcision may have. Speaking here of male circumcision also, to clarify. I speak from an impersonal place.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
I have in no way got a great deal of knowledge of neurological or genetic diseases, but from a general scientific point of view I just think saying circumcision increases the risk of ASD in a sample size of 340, 000 is vague. As I said, 5, 000 in 340, 000 is 1.47%. The current estimate being 1% of people being affected by ASD, so boys who have undergone circumcision only increase the risk by 0.47%. Not exactly definitive.

That's one way to think about those numbers. Perhaps a more accurate way would be... if 1% is the standard percentage of those affected, and this study has identified a group where 1.47% are affected, that's a 47% increase in the percentage of affected people.

Or if that doesn't make sense, just pretend for a moment that instead of 1.47% it was a little higher, say 2%. So now the general population has 1% ASD risk, and the circumcised group has a 2% risk. That means it has twice as many people affected - the risk is not 1% higher, it is doubled!

If the real number is 1.47%, then instead of "twice as many", it's "a-little-under-half-again-as-many", but the same idea applies.

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Yup.

The title of the actual study in question is Ritual circumcision and risk of autism spectrum disorder in 0- to 9-year-old boys: national cohort study in Denmark. In it they found an overall increase in risk of 46% and among infantile autism cases the risk increased by 106%, thats more than double. In muslim families hyperkinetic disorder risk increased 81%. So the effect is substantial.

In regards to 342,877 people being too small of a statistical pool for meaningful analysis (lol) the statistical analysis showed a 1 in 1000 chance that the correlation was not a genuine one. That means do the study 1000 times and, statistically, one of them would give a wrong result. Many studies linking arsenic or smoking to harm didnt get such a sound statistical confirmation.

Overall I still dont quite know what to make of this study tho, further research into mechanism and context of the effect should prove quite interesting.

Watch them surprise all of us further by finding some foreskin bacteria that prevents autism, opening the door to a crafty korean food manufacturer producing anti-autism kimchee.

  • Like 3

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

seeing as it's pretty widely believed that early childhood trauma of various kinds are a possible/probable cause of autism, it seems perfectly plausible to me that getting half your dick chopped off at a critical moment of psychological/neurological development (ie a period of neurological imprinting vulnerability) could be sufficiently traumatic as to seriously affect that childs psycho/neuro-logical development. If the child was particularly sensative & the procedure was badly timed or badly performed then a serious psychological withdrawal seems pretty likely to me..

as someone who has experienced PTSD from early childhood it doesn't seem farfetched at all.

Getting your dick chopped off is pretty high up there as far as trauma goes, whatever age you are, let alone at a critical moment of development.

  • Like 6

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Thanks Auxin, now I can't get past the idea of foreskin kimchee. :P

You know what happens next...

Man arrested for copulating with cabbages, claims "I was just trying to help the children"
  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Okay I'm gonna think about this..

Autism is not caused solely by circumcision. It is unlikely that circumcision causes autism, I don't know what the figures are but since girls suffer it too, the only way to test a similar hypothesis is to see whether FGM increases the incidence of autism.

What other things might occur alongside circumcision that makes circumcised boys more likely to have autism?

Maybe rote learning at a young age increases the risk of autism. That could be a strong factor in strictly religious groups, or people who weirdly try to brainwash their children at a young age. Could this kind of mental (abuse?/stimulation?) encourage young brains to develop differently to children who are allowed to play as they wish? An apparent high incidence of autism in trans* populations suggest that suppression of emotions during early childhood could impact mental and emotional development (I have heard this but have no figures to back it up, sorry).

Edited by whitewind

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

intact represent

  • Like 2

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Correlation does not equal causation.

/correlation.png

  • Like 2

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

interesting thread. i have aspergers and also circumsised.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now

×