Eric Fombonne, MD, FRCP, (b. 1954, Paris, France) is a professor of psychiatry and an epidemiologist. He directs the child psychiatry division at McGill University in Canada and the psychiatry department at the Montreal Children's Hospital, where he played a key role in the launch of its autism clinic. Fombonne is also the Canada Research Chair in child psychiatry. His research focuses on epidemiological investigations of childhood mental illness and related risk factors, with a particular focus on the epidemiology of autism. Year 1954 (MCMLIV) was a common year (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... City flag City coat of arms Motto: Fluctuat nec mergitur (Latin: Tossed by the waves, she does not sink) The Eiffel Tower in Paris, as seen from the esplanade du Trocadéro. ... Psychiatry is a branch of medicine dealing with the prevention, assessment, diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of the mind and mental illness. ... Epidemiology (Greek epi = upon, among; demos = people, district; logos = word, discourse), defined literally, is the study of epidemics in humans. ... McGill University is a publicly funded, co-educational research university located in the city of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. ... Montreal Childrens Hospital is a pediatric health centre in Montreal and one of a few in Canada. ... Canada Research Chairs (CRCs) are Canadian university research positions that were created in 2000 and funded by the Government of Canada (who have provided 900 million Canadian dollars). ... Epidemiology is the study of factors affecting the health and illness of populations, and serves as the foundation and logic of interventions made in the interest of public health and preventive medicine. ... A mental illness or mental disorder refers to one of many mental health conditions characterized by distress, impaired cognitive functioning, atypical behavior, emotional dysregulation, and/or maladaptive behavior. ... Autism is a brain development disorder that shows symptoms before a child is three years old and has a steady course with no remission. ...

Fombonne is a permanent member of a National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) study section and has been appointed to a special National Institute of Health (NIH) advisory board for autism research programs. In October, 2002 he became the president of the Association of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry of Canada (APCAPC). The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) is one of 27 components of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the United States federal governments principal biomedical and behavioral research agency. ... The National Institutes of Health is an institution of the United States government which focuses on medical research. ... Also see: 2002 (number). ...

Research

Prior to his arrival in Canada, Fombonne was a researcher at the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College in London, United Kingdom, where he also worked as a child and adolescent psychiatrist at Maudsley Hospital. While there, he and his colleagues were credited with demonstrating that there is no epidemiological evidence of a link between the MMR vaccine with autism, as postulated by other researchers including Andrew Wakefield. A New Scientist article quotes Fombonne as saying "Trying to link this with MMR is complete nonsense." Front doors of the Institute of Psychiatry // Introduction The Institute of Psychiatry (IOP) is a research institution dedicated to discovering what causes mental health problems and diseases of the brain. ... Mascot Reggie the lion Affiliations University of London Russell Group Golden Triangle Website http://www. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... The Maudsley Hospital in Denmark Hill, Camberwell, South London is unique as a psychiatric hospital in that it was always intended to be a centre of treatment and research rather than confinement and asylum. Now part of the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust (SLaM) the hospital derives its origins... The MMR vaccine is a mixture of live attenuated viruses, administered via injection for immunization against measles, mumps and rubella. ... Andrew Wakefield (born 1956 in the United Kingdom) is a Canadian trained surgeon, best known as the lead author of a controversial 1998 research study, published in The Lancet, which reported bowel symptoms in a selected sample of twelve children with autistic spectrum disorders and other disabilities, and alleged a... New Scientist is a weekly international science magazine covering recent developments in science and technology for a general English-speaking audience. ...

One of the major studies conducted by Fombonne examined depression, which linked alcohol abuse to increased suicidal tendencies in boys, using data on 6,000 subjects. Mayor of Leipzig, Germany, committed suicide along with his wife and daughter on April 20, 1945. ...

At McGill University, Fombonne has consolidated the Autism Spectrum Disorder program in Montreal since his appointment there in 2001. He currently heads an autism research program directed at evaluating environmental risk factors, such as vaccines, and investigating genetic risks associated with the heritability of autism. He has also been involved in molecular genetic studies of clinical depression, and in long-term outcome studies of child and adolescent depression. This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... Year 2001 (MMI) was a common year starting on Monday (link displays the 2001 Gregorian calendar). ... A vaccine is an antigenic preparation used to establish immunity to a disease. ... The heritability of autism is debated by psychology researchers, parents of children diagnosed with autism, and members of the autistic community. ... Clinical depression (also called major depressive disorder, or unipolar depression when compared to bipolar disorder) is a state of intense sadness, melancholia or despair that has advanced to the point of being disruptive to an individuals social functioning and/or activities of daily living. ...

Autism epidemic

Fombonne has reported that the prevalence of autism is 68 per 10,000, or one in 147.

He attributes the apparent rise in autism cases to wider recognition of the condition, and argues that claims of an 'autism epidemic' are unfounded.[2] In 2001, he told the BBC "That rates in recent surveys are substantially higher than 30 years ago merely reflects the adoption of a much broader concept of autism, a recognition of autism among normally intelligent subjects and an improved identification of persons with autism." Year 2001 (MMI) was a common year starting on Monday (link displays the 2001 Gregorian calendar). ... The British Broadcasting Corporation, which is usually known as the BBC, is the largest broadcasting corporation in the world in terms of audience numbers, employing 26,000 staff in the United Kingdom alone and with a budget of more than GB£4 billion. ...

Published works

Fombonne has written over 130 scientific reports in peer reviewed journals and 25 book chapters. He was associate editor of the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders from 1994 to 2003. Peer review (known as refereeing in some academic fields) is a scholarly process used in the publication of manuscripts and in the awarding of funding for research. ... Year 1994 (MCMXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display full 1994 Gregorian calendar). ... Year 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Family

Fombonne was married to Rebecca Fuhrer, chair of the joint Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health at McGill, and is the father of four boys, Jonathan, Daniel, Benjamin and Arthur.

External links

• BBC.co.uk - 'Autism rates "not rising"', BBC (February 15, 2001)
• CAIRNE-Sitr.com - 'One in 165 children now estimated to have pervasive developmental disorder, three times greater than previously thought', Eric Fombonne, MD, FRCPsych, Canadian Autism Intervention and Research Network
• Chairs.gc.ca - 'Eric Fonbonne', Canada Research Chair in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Canada Research Chairs
• CPA-APC.org - 'Modern Views of Autism' (opinion), Eric Fombonne, MD, FRCPsych, Canadian Journal of Psychiatry (September, 2003)
• MUHC.ca - 'Dr. Eric Fombonne elected to head two key associations', McGill University Research Center (September 24, 2002)
• UCDavis.edu - 'Eric Fombonne, M.D.: M.I.N.D. Institute Distinguished Lecturer Series' (December 14, 2005)
• PRNewsWire.com - 'Newly Released Canadian Data Links Vaccines with Pervasive Developmental Disorder', National Autism Association
• UoGuelph.ca - 'The Prevalence of Autism' (opinion), Eric Fombonne, MD, Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), vol 289, no 1, p 49 (January 1, 2003)
• VAProject.org - 'A Tale of Two Cities: Flawed Epidemiology', F. Edward Yazbak, MD, FAAP (March 7, 2007)