"The Hawthorne Effect"

The author of Slate's "medical examiner" column discusses alternative therapies for autism, why he believes none of them work, and why he believes parents continue to swear by them. The article is interesting -- and less caustic than one might expect. I believe the author does miss one key point, though. I think it is entirely possible that parents continue to cling to treatments that are dismissed by the scientific community because they need to know that they are doing something that is helping their children. Nobody wants to give up hope.