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Tyler Black, MD

@tylerblack32

Sep 22

Fun child psychiatry fact!

If we analyze a group of 40-year-old adults with the same diagnostic criteria & screening as we use currently on children, we get virtually identical rates of autism.

"Exploding rates of autism" likely a reflection of our exploding understanding.

A 2025 Canadian study estimated 1.8% autism prevalence in adults, similar to child rates, showing diagnosis consistency across ages despite evolving awareness.

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From 2011-2022 US data found increased autism diagnoses in children, alongside rises in young adult diagnoses simultaneously, not lagged. This implies that it is not something new to this generation.

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Read 11 tweets

Tyler Black, MD

@tylerblack32

May 30

New JAMA study (2025) claims social media use → increased depression in 9-13yo.

🧵But let’s dissect:

overall:
* Within-person effects: β=0.07-0.09 (small/medium)
* No between-person effects (β=-0.01)
* 4 waves, n=11,876, caregiver-reported depressive symptoms

1/🧵

The study is here:

However, I have a lot of critiques of this study and its conclusions.

Let's dig in:

2/jamanetwork.com/journals/jaman…

Critique: Annual self report scale vs actual tracking

The more that passive tracking (e.g., screen time logs) are used in studies, the weaker the links to mental health are shown.

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Read 12 tweets

Tyler Black, MD

@tylerblack32

Apr 10

https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1910385785834250435

We currently have almost zero explanatory power for autism aside from some very obscure genetic and prenatal influences.

We already know what has caused the autism "epidemic"... Increased awareness, broader diagnoses, and more screening/requests for assessment.

https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1910385785834250435

Bobby Kennedy frequently likes to say it was "1 in 10000 when [he] was a kid". It was not. Studies have shown that if we used modern diagnostics on we would arrive at similar rates, and syndromic presentations of youth for neurodiversity were IDENTICAL to those in the 80s.

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When Bobby was a kid, there were more dropouts, "special kids" and a whole assortment of bad names/labels that we now understand better as the extreme neurodiversity that humanity expresses. These poor autistic classmates of RFK were ostracized and stigmatized as "bad"

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Tyler Black, MD

@tylerblack32

Jan 2

🚨Countering COVID Myths:🚨

❌Myth: "Lockdowns definitely caused massive learning loss"

✅Reality: Using a large set (n=2mil) of Ontario students, we see more improvements then losses, and trend of older students doing better than younger students.

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As an example of the statistical reason why I can say the above is a myth, zoom in on ALL the grade 3 scores (Grade 3 did the "worst")

Looking at the distribution, we see more deteriorations (52%) than improvements (45% of scores) achievement scores, but its very broad!

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Even if we take the "worst example" of grade 3 loss (Grade 3 writing), we see more deteriorations (58% of schools) than improvements, but the distribution is wide and 40% of schools showed improvements.

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Tyler Black, MD

@tylerblack32

Dec 16, 2024

Vaccines and "placebo control"

Placebo-controlled trials compare a vaccine to an inactive substance (placebo). This helps measure how effective the vaccine is. In the case of vaccines, often, the placebo is not "saline", but rather a previous vaccine or vaccine solution.

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When a safe, effective vaccine already exists, using an inactive placebo means some participants are deliberately left unprotected against disease. This creates unnecessary harm.

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Ethical standards require minimizing harm and offering participants the best available care. When a proven vaccine exists, denying it to anyone—regardless of location—is unethical.

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Read 9 tweets

Tyler Black, MD

@tylerblack32

Dec 15, 2024

🚨🇨🇦Correcting Disinfo🇨🇦🚨
"COVID vaccination didn't work"

In Canada during the Delta wave, vaccination prevented infection (unvaccinated 6x higher chance of being infected). As well, being unvaccinated led to a 22X chance of being hospitalized and an 18X chance of dying.

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For confirmed infections, the IFR for unvaccinated was a whopping 2.4%. The IFR for being vaccinated was much lower, both due to preventing infection and reducing the consequences of it.

Delta was a very deadly strain, and unvaccinated people died/suffered the most.

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When Omicron hit, it was a strain that evaded vaccinations, leading to enormous numbers of infections, even in vaccinated people.

However, the immunity protection vs hospitalization and death was still enormous, and unvaccinated Canadians were 12X more likely to die.

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