The 2021 Day of Learning Quickie

If you missed this year’s Day of Learning, the videos will be up soon. But if you are a podcast listener, you can listen a 20 minute recap on this week’s podcast. The topics included the effects of the pandemic on family functioning and clinician diagnosis and assessments, lessons learned through the pandemic, the role of the social justice movement in autism, personalized medicine, an explanation of SUDEP, short for sudden unexplained death in epilepsy, and new information on CBD or cannabidiol. It’s not a substitute for watching it live and being able to ask questions of the speakers, but it touches on the main themes.

That new study on mortality in people with autism…..

…..may be overestimating the risk of drowning and suffocation in those with ASD.  The study claims a higher rate of drowning and other accidental deaths in people with autism, which is true, but the magnitude of the effect they found was astronomical and misleading given the methodology.  They counted people with autism off of information on their death certificate.  Not everyone with autism has this code listed on their death certificate – so likely this number is underestimated and the risk of drowning overestimated.  The shocking results call for things like swimming lessons in those with autism and other drastic safety measures.  People with autism ARE at a higher risk of drowning and we should all pay attention.   Ways to prevent accidental death in people with autism are needed and the overall message should be the same.  But the numbers themselves are probably a little off.