I just read the scariest article in Newsweek, May 13, 1996 (a weekly new
mag. for those of you outside US.)  It is titled, "Life in a Parallel
World," by S. Begley and K. Springen, and is in the Science section of the
mag. on pg 70.  The article concerns autism and I am just going to quote two
sections:

"The social phobia of autism may be linked to the brain chemical oxytocin.
This molecule, best known for inducing labor and lactation, also promotes
maternal and other bonds and so has come to be known as the sociability
molecule.  When Hollander [an autism researcher] administered oxytocin to
five autistic patients, it made them four times more talkative and,
according to the patients, twice as "happy." What causes the abnormalities
in brain chemistry?  Scientists suspect a subtle interplay of the DNA we
inherit and the experience we have....Almost no autistics have children --
most can't even manage a date -- so any genes that directly caused autism
would disappear from the population.  Unless, that is, they remained
quiescent, not causing any disease until triggered by some even such as
brain damage...Finding the cause of that brain damage represents the next
frontier for autism research.  One suspect is a virus that disturbs the
migration of neurons in the fetal brain....A MORE CONTROVERSIAL THEORY
FOCUSES ON PITOCIN, A HORMONE GIVEN TO WOMEN TO SPEED UP THEIR LABOR.
PITOCIN IS A MANMADE ANALOGUE OF OXYTOCIN. "MOST OF THE MOTHERS OF PATIENTS
WE SEE HAVE HAD PITOCIN-INDUCED LABOR," SAYS HOLLANDER.  HE SUSPECTS THAT
PITOCIN SOMEHOW MESSES UP THE NEWBORN'S OXYTOCIN SYSTEM, PRODUCING THE
SOCIAL PHOBIAS OF AUTISM.  THIS IDEA IS VERY PRELIMINARY, BUT ITS AN
IMPROVEMENT ON THE THEORY HATCHED WHEN AUTISM WAS FIRST IDENTIFIED 53 YEARS
AGO.  THEN, SCIENTICS BLAMED IT ON UNLOVING MOTHERS."

 All I can say is:  It's not nice to fool Mother Nature.

Barbara Wilson-Clay, BSE, IBCLC
priv pract. Austin, Tx