
Logo of the Autism Research Institute
There is a study planned on the long-term effects of psych drugs on autistic patients:
Reassessing Antipsychotics for Autism in Transition-Age Youth
January 31, 2026
In recent years, there has been increasing attention on the prescription and use of antipsychotic medications among transition-age youth on the autism spectrum. This demographic presents unique challenges and opportunities for medical professionals, as understanding the interplay between autism and antipsychotic treatments is crucial to ensuring optimal outcomes. A recent study aims to shed light on this important topic, focusing on the patterns of antipsychotic drug prescriptions, potentially identifying trends and offering guidance for clinicians working in this field.
The study, authored by a team led by Benevides, Rast, and Lee, investigates the specific prescriptions given to transition-age youth diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Antipsychotic medications can offer relief from symptoms associated with ASD, including irritability, aggression, and severe mood swings, which significantly affect the quality of life for both individuals and their families. However, the decision to prescribe these medications is often complex, involving assessments of risk, benefit, and the individual’s unique circumstances.
The findings of this research are poised to contribute significantly to the existing literature surrounding the use of medications in treating youth with autism. It highlights the discrepancies in prescription rates and the various factors that may influence whether an antipsychotic is prescribed, such as age, severity of symptoms, and co-occurring mental health conditions. Clinicians are often faced with the necessary challenge of balancing the benefits of medication against the potential for adverse side effects, a delicate dance that requires thoughtful consideration backed by robust data. https://bioengineer.org/reassessing-antipsychotics-for-autism-in-transition-age-youth/
Yes, the fact is that relatively little is known of the long-term consequences of psych drugs. Even this study does not have all the data, but it is good some are trying to evaluate that.
The lack of hard data on the safety, etc. of drug treatments has long been known. In 1981, the old WCG published the following:
Therapy Controversy
The medical and mental health professions today attempt to combat mental depression with a wide variety or combinations of drug, electric, verbal and health therapies. There is controversy over the effectiveness and safety of almost every technique.
An arsenal of new drugs have been developed in an attempt to calm or correct chemical imbalances in the depressed patient’s mind and central nervous system. Doctors must often experiment with different drugs, and many of these must be taken for several weeks to have an effect. Consequent side effects must then be dealt with. (Plain Truth, February 1981)
Changes in autism policies, management, etc. have long been needed.
Some management changes happened this week. Notice the following:
RFK Jr. replaces entire federal autism panel as rates hit 1 in 31 children
January 30, 2026
In a decisive move to reshape national autism policy, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has appointed 21 new members to a key federal advisory committee, directly responding to President Donald Trump’s directive to modernize autism research. The January 28 announcement overhauls the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC), installing a slate of experts and advocates, several of whom have publicly linked vaccines to autism. This dramatic shift has drawn sharp criticism from established autism science groups but has been hailed by supporters as a long-overdue effort to address the epidemic’s root causes, including environmental triggers and vaccine safety.
The IACC coordinates all federal autism activities, monitors research, and advises the secretary on policy, influencing nearly $2 billion in annual research funding. Kennedy stated the new appointees are “the most qualified experts” who will “pursue rigorous science and deliver the answers Americans deserve.” The committee’s previous members’ terms ended and were not renewed, leading to a complete refresh. Autism rates have soared from an estimated 1 in 150 children in 2002 to 1 in 31 in the latest federal data, a crisis Kennedy has pledged to confront.
A committee shaped by lived experience
The new members are a mix of clinicians, researchers, and advocates, many of whom are parents of autistic children or are autistic themselves. They include Dr. Daniel Rossignol, a family physician and researcher; Elizabeth Bonker, a non-speaking autistic advocate who types to communicate; and John Gilmore, founder of the Autism Action Network. Their appointments emphasize firsthand experience with the condition. “As a parent of two children with autism, I also recognize how essential it is that research priorities translate into meaningful improvements in care, services, and long-term outcomes,” Rossignol told The Epoch Times.
Several appointees have been vocal about a potential vaccine-autism link, a position long dismissed by federal health agencies. New member Ginger Taylor, a former therapist, states on her social media profile that there are “240 papers linking vaccines and autism.” Another, Tracy Slepcevic, author of Warrior Mom: A Mother’s Journey In Healing Her Son with Autism, has said her son is vaccine-damaged. Their inclusion signals a fundamental shift in the committee’s approach to exploring causes.
The appointments were immediately criticized by groups like the Autism Science Foundation. Its president, Alison Singer, a former 12-year IACC member, said, “This will hurt people with autism, those currently alive and those yet to be born, and all who love them.” The foundation argued the committee “does not reflect the breadth of the autism community” and “disproportionately represents a very small subset of families who believe vaccines cause autism.”
Changing course
However, supporters counter that the previous research paradigm has failed. “When the IACC was founded in 2000, we officially did not know what the cause or causes of autism were,” John Gilmore told The Defender. “Twenty-five years later, we still officially do not know… but the autism rate is thought to be about 1 in 31. We are picking up the pieces following a generation of profound failure.” He expressed a desire for the IACC to focus on environmental causes, “including vaccines, as opposed to the almost exclusive focus on heritable genes.” https://www.naturalnews.com/2026-01-30-rfk-replaces-entire-federal-autism-panel.html
Under Secretary Kennedy, the US Centers for Disease Control has finally admitted that vaccines may be a factor in autism (https://apnews.com/article/trump-rfk-gold-standard-science-research-autism-6e4c6bc2534252ab1e7add0942043778). The mainstream keeps pretending that the vaccine-autism link does not exist. But that is because real science on this has often been ignored and/or suppressed from publication.
Over a decade ago, Barry Farber wrote the following
April 12, 2016
Can you believe our beloved America has degenerated into a place where media are perfectly free to write what follows – but nobody does? Or, better said, nobody did until a controversial film implicated Big Pharma and the Centers for Disease Control in lying and falsifying the figures that show shocking connections between the MMR vaccine (measles, mumps, rubella) administered to infants as young as 18 months – and autism! The documentary, “Vaxxed: From Coverup to Catastrophe,” was viewed by Robert De Niro, who has an autistic child, praised repeatedly by Robert De Niro, and finally withdrawn from the prestigious Tribeca Film Festival by Robert De Niro under pressure from some very stupid tyrant-types, who are apparently too stupid to realize their censoring days are over thanks to a sleepless Freedom Fighter known as the Internet!
I was taken by my investigative-reporter-daughter Celia Farber to the New York premiere. You will have a chance to see “Vaxxed” despite the frantic efforts by Big Pharma and the Centers for Disease Control to make sure you don’t. Children yet unborn will thank you.
Here’s what’s known, incontrovertible, stomp-down truth beyond contradiction. In the 1950s autism was almost unknown. There was a clinic in California with maybe half-a-dozen cases. Then along came one case of autism for every ten thousand children who’d undergone the MMR vaccine. Then came one such case out of every 250. The latest figure is one out of 50!
And the proud defenders of Big Pharma and the CDC still refuse to yield a centimeter. And that’s what interests so many of us non-doctors and non-scientists. There’s the pungent fragrance of “body-panic” as more and more anguished parents and alarmed Americans ask what’s going on here. The CDC’s cooking of the books has befouled the air thousands of kitchens away. Dr. Andrew Wakefield, distinguished research gastroenterologist, had his license revoked for the high crime of suggesting the MMR vaccine needed more study! CDC internal whistleblower Dr. William Thompson has more and more frightened onlookers hopeful that truth will prevail. The MMR loyalists, however, defend it like the fanatical war-time Japanese defended their Emperor Hirohito. The cause of this skyrocketing surge in autism, Big Pharma and the CDC assure us, “cannot be vaccinations, must not be vaccinations, will not be vaccinations!” http://www.wnd.com/2016/04/big-pharma-cdc-lie-on-vaccines/#iEHR6fY880Hw5023.99
Whether or not vaccines directly cause autism can be, and has been debated. My own view is that it is an accumulation of toxins that likely cause autism, and that vaccines are just one more toxin (though a powerful one). Perhaps I should mention that I knew the late Dr. Bernard Rimland, who founded the Autism Research Institute (a non-mainstream organization) many decades ago. He was one of the first to point out the possible connection between vaccines and autism. In a letter to the editor of the Washington Post in 1997, Rimland wrote: “The reason that the public–and Congress–supports alternative medicine is that conventional medicine, despite its arrogance, is far too ineffective, far too harmful and far too costly. Non-conventional medicine is a rational alternative to a much greater evil–conventional medicine” (“When ‘Alternative’ medicine is prescient”. Washington Post. No. Final edition. Washington, D.C. October 7, 1997. p. A.1). Despite being despised by much of the mainstream, several of Dr. Rimland’s basic points on the causation of autism (as well as dispelling the false prevailing position of mainstream medicine in the mid-20th century that it was caused by “cold and distant, refrigerator, mothers”).
Dr. Rimland allowed me to put some of his writings together in a book I wrote many years ago.
Decades ago, the fairly pro-vaccine publication Consumer Reports mentioned that vaccinations seem to increase the probability of developing asthma. As Barry Farber pointed out, we have seen massive increase in autism rates–though many have disputed that vaccines could have caused that, the reality is that the autism rates have gone way up.
California used to allow parents to not vaccinate their children, but now they are forcing the issue as are other governments. Let me state that having met with health officials in California, including giving testimony about three decades back before the Assembly Health committee, I have seen first hand how certain decisions appear to be made, and money and political considerations are normally more important than health and true public welfare.
Anyway, I do not believe that one must intentionally expose oneself or ones’ children to the pathogens and other elements involved with vaccines. Nor do I believe that vaccines should be mandated to parents. Vaccines are not going to save society whether or not they have much effect on autism rates.
In 2014, we put out the following video on our Bible New Prophecy YouTube channel.
How serious do world health officials say the problem of air pollution is? Have scientists found a connection between toxins associated with some air pollution and autism? Is there a connection between neurotoxins and brain development? Can air pollution cross oceans? What role did God create for humans in Genesis? How should Christians handle the issues of pollution and waste? Will humankind destroy all flesh from the planet? Will God come and destroy those that destroy the Earth?
Here is a link to our video is titled: Air Pollution, Autism, and Prophecy
Decades ago, the late Ernest Martin wrote:
Leading doctors have warned that there is no substitute for clean living – that drugs cannot nullify the damage done by wanton breaking of all health laws – and that wholesale vaccinations can weaken man’s overall natural resistance to disease. But as long as we appear to be well, almost no one gives these warnings a second thought.(Martin E. Will we ever learns? Plain Truth, August 1965)
Turning from sin, eating only what is good, and obeying sanitary principles in the Bible are more effective than vaccines. But most political leaders will not truly advocate all of that.
The Bible warns of “confusion” as a societal curse for disobedience (cf. Deuteronomy 28:28), and that might be a factor in the increasing incidence of autism.
Various parts of the world are taking bigger risks mandating vaccines, having chemically & genetically altered foods, and reducing religious freedoms than the proponents realize.
And increases in autism may be related in ways many do not realize.
Several items of possibly related interest may include:
Christian Health Matters Should Christians be concerned about their health? Does the Bible give any food and health guidelines? Here are links to three related sermons: Let’s Talk About Food, Evil is Affecting the Food Supply, and Let’s Talk About Health.
Continuing Church of God position on vaccines Pestilences are coming. Is it ever appropriate for Christians to get vaccinated?
The Bible, Christians, and the Environment How should Christians view the environment? Does the Bible give any clues? What are some of the effects of air, water, and land pollution? Is environmental pollution a factor in autism and death? Do pollutants seem to double the autism risk? What will Jesus do? Here is a link to a related sermon: Christians and the Environment (there is also a YouTube video available titled Air Pollution, Autism, and Prophecy, one titled Will Pollution lead to the End?, and one called COP 27 and Solving Climate Change).
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