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U.S. autism rate surges, CDC reports (1 in 68)

washingtonpost.com

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Re: U.S. autism rate surges, CDC reports (1 in 68)

#2
> “It could be that doctors are getting better at identifying these children, there could be a growing number of children with high intelligence [who are autistic], or it could be both,” she said.

The article doesn't mention that the DSM-5 went into force last year. The criteria for diagnosing Autism has changed since the DSM-IV, and this could also explain the jump in diagnoses.

(This is alluded to with the line "Milder forms, such as Asperger’s syndrome, are now considered to fall along the autism spectrum." -- The entry for "Asperger disorder" in the DSM-5 is now replaced with a pointer to see the entry for "Autism".)

Re: U.S. autism rate surges, CDC reports (1 in 68)

#3
Direct link to the CDC report :

Prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorder Among Children Aged 8 Years — Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network, 11 Sites, United States, 2010 Surveillance Summaries March 28, 2014 / 63(SS02);1-21

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/ss6302a1.htm?s_cid=...

Re: U.S. autism rate surges, CDC reports (1 in 68)

#4
post #2

> “It could be that doctors are getting better at identifying these children, there could be a growing number of children with high intelligence [who are autistic], or it could be both,” she said. The article doesn't mention that the DSM-5 went into force last year. The criteria for diagnosing Autism has changed since the DSM-IV, and this could also explain the jump in diagnoses. (This is alluded to with the line "Mi…

the numbers used in the report are from 2010

Re: U.S. autism rate surges, CDC reports (1 in 68)

#5
post #2

> “It could be that doctors are getting better at identifying these children, there could be a growing number of children with high intelligence [who are autistic], or it could be both,” she said. The article doesn't mention that the DSM-5 went into force last year. The criteria for diagnosing Autism has changed since the DSM-IV, and this could also explain the jump in diagnoses. (This is alluded to with the line "Mi…

Just came here to post the same quote. This particular article doesn't give any information that would clearly suggest an actual increase in incidence (rather than an increase in diagnosis).

Re: U.S. autism rate surges, CDC reports (1 in 68)

#7
Well, how about not diagnosing your kid with autism just because he's an uncontrollable little bastard, just to justify your bad parenting?(This includes ADD, ADHD, ASD).

That should bring the stat down.

Qualifier: not all obviously, but it has certainly become a way to remove personal responsibility as a parent.

Re: U.S. autism rate surges, CDC reports (1 in 68)

#9
post #2

> “It could be that doctors are getting better at identifying these children, there could be a growing number of children with high intelligence [who are autistic], or it could be both,” she said. The article doesn't mention that the DSM-5 went into force last year. The criteria for diagnosing Autism has changed since the DSM-IV, and this could also explain the jump in diagnoses. (This is alluded to with the line "Mi…

Having seen a lot of very successful, but somewhat autistic people working in tech (probably Asperger's), it seems a little strange to be classifying it as a "disorder"...

Re: U.S. autism rate surges, CDC reports (1 in 68)

#10
post #6

There is no "test" for autism, no blood market, no brain scan. What is the false positive number? This sounds like the diagnosis for "hysteria" in women 50 years ago .

Two thoughts on this. Note that I'm not explicitly disagreeing to you, just responding.

(1) No blood marker, no brain scan, true. But, it's something that does become evident in people later, so the test has later symptoms that it can be checked against for its error rate.

(2) It could be "hysteria", but it's still people acting unusually (at least later in life). Perhaps it's something that's changed in the way we raise our kids, or environmental, or changes in prenatal/birth-giving/etc practice. Any way, it's a change in our population and is interesting enough to follow.

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