Michael Fitzpatrick (physician)

Michael Fitzpatrick (born 1950) is a British general practitioner (GP) and medical author from London, UK. Fitzpatrick is known for writing several books and newspaper articles about controversies in autism, from his perspective as someone who is both a GP and the parent of a son with autism. His book Defeating Autism: A Dangerous Delusion (2008) describes his views on the rising popularity of "biomedical" treatments for autism, as well as the MMR vaccine controversy.[1]

Michael Fitzpatrick
Born1950 (age 69–70)
OccupationGeneral practitioner
Known forWriting about autism therapies and the MMR vaccine controversy
Spouse(s)Mary Fitzpatrick
ChildrenJames Fitzpatrick
Autism rights movement
Criticism

Fitzpatrick's books have also focused on the pseudoscientific treatments for autism, such as Mark Geier's use of chelation therapy and Lupron as autism treatments, which Fitzpatrick has criticized as "dehumanising and dangerous."[2] He also condemned the use of secretin as an autism treatment in his 2004 book MMR and Autism: What Parents Need to Know, in which he wrote that "the secretin bubble burst" when a randomized controlled trial found that it was ineffective. In an interview with The Guardian, he proposed that special diets are appealing to parents of children with autism because so little is known about the cause or possible treatments for autism, "And then someone else comes along and says your doctor's useless, that they know what caused it, and that you can do something about it".[3]

Fitzpatrick has criticized Neurotribes for generalizing autistic people, noting that most low-functioning autistics need supervised living and experience challenging behavior.[4] He also was skeptical that Naoki Higashida, a nonverbal autistic individual, could have written the book The Reason I Jump because of the "scant explanation" of the process Higashida's mother used for helping him write using the character grid and expressed concern that the book "reinforces more myths than it challenges".[5]

Books and chapters
  • The Truth about the AIDS Panic (1987) co-authored with Don Milligan. Junius Publications. ISBN 094839207X [6]
  • The Tyranny of Health (2001). Routledge.
  • MMR and Autism: What Parents Need to Know (2004). Routledge.
  • Defeating Autism: A Dangerous Delusion (2009). Routledge.
  • "The point is to change it: a short account of the Revolutionary Communist Party", in Waiting For The Revolution: the British Far Left from 1956, edited by Evan Smith and Matthew Worley (2017), pp.218-237. Manchester University Press. ISBN 9781526113665 [7]
gollark: I see.
gollark: (yes, muahahaha, Tux1 will be annoyed slightly by my use of political compass terminology)
gollark: What, so I should just stick to majority opinions to avoid possibly upsetting/angering people and/or worsening the social fabric? The second one sounds very auth of you.
gollark: I am increasingly confused.
gollark: c: z!!!!!!

References
  1. Grinker, R. R. (7 September 2009). "Defeating Autism: A Damaging Delusion. Michael Fitzpatrick". International Journal of Epidemiology. 38 (5): 1415–1417. doi:10.1093/ije/dyp242.
  2. Fitzpatrick, Michael (12 January 2009). "Toxic treatments for autistic children". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 May 2014.
  3. Hannaford, Alex (5 April 2013). "Andrew Wakefield: autism inc". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 May 2014.
  4. Fitzpatrick, Michael (September 25, 2015). "Why we should be cautious about celebrating autism". Spiked. Retrieved 24 April 2016.
  5. Fitzpatrick, Michael (23 August 2013). "No, autistic children are not the spiritual saviours of mankind". Spiked. Retrieved 20 July 2019.
  6. "British Library record, The Truth About The AIDS Panic".
  7. "British Library record, Waiting For The Revolution".
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