Autism Diagnoses Surge by 30 Percent in Kids, CDC Reports

[mystery-ak]

http://www.nbcnews.com/health/kids-health/autism-diagnoses-surge-30-percent-kids-cdc-reports-n63856


Autism Diagnoses Surge by 30 Percent in Kids, CDC Reports
By Maggie Fox

The latest look at autism in the U.S. shows a startling 30 percent jump among 8-year-olds diagnosed with the disorder in a two-year period, to one in every 68 children.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which did the survey, says the numbers almost certainly reflect more awareness and diagnosis of kids who would have been missed in years past. The new estimate for 2010 was a jump from one in 88 children in 2008, the last year for which numbers had been available.

“The number of children diagnosed with autism continues to rise,” the agency’s Dr. Coleen Boyle told reporters.

But the CDC noted that the numbers vary greatly from state to state, and it did not use a nationally representative sample, but a look at groups of children in 11 states.

“The number of children identified with ASD (autism spectrum disorder) ranged from 1 in 175 children in Alabama to 1 in 45 children in New Jersey,” CDC says in its report, based on a survey taken in 2010. The numbers from 2008 were first reported in 2012.

This would work out to about 1.2 million children under 18, Boyle says.

Dr. Max Wiznitzer, a child neurologist at Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital in Cleveland, who was not involved in the study, said he believed the numbers, but thought they reflected a rise in diagnosis, not "the true prevalence of autism."

“I'm not convinced that the true numbers of autism are rising, rising, rising every time we survey them,” Wiznitzer told NBC News in an interview.

“Over time, more children are being identified,” agreed Dr. Lisa Shulman, a specialist in autism at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University in New York.

continued at link

[Oceander]

Dr. Max Wiznitzer, a child neurologist at Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital in Cleveland, who was not involved in the study, said he believed the numbers, but thought they reflected a rise in diagnosis, not "the true prevalence of autism."

Bingo.

Also, how much of this is overdiagnosis, similar to what happens with too many children who are erroneously diagnosed with ADHD?

[jmyrlefuller]

If I recall right, the diagnosis rate for this disorder has jumped tenfold in just the past decade.

I have heard that increasing age of birth mothers is also a factor, on top of overdiagnosis. In other words, this ever-onward push for college education is pushing young adults to avoid childbearing too long, and it's creating a generation of kids who are mentally unable to function.

[Oceander]

If I recall right, the diagnosis rate for this disorder has jumped tenfold in just the past decade.

I have heard that increasing age of birth mothers is also a factor, on top of overdiagnosis. In other words, this ever-onward push for college education is pushing young adults to avoid childbearing too long, and it's creating a generation of kids who are mentally unable to function.

What would the causal mechanism be?  Without a strong causal mechanism that sounds no better than the "you're a bad mother" claims that were used to beat up on the mothers of troubled kids in the 50s and 60s.

[NavyCanDo]

If I recall right, the diagnosis rate for this disorder has jumped tenfold in just the past decade.

I have heard that increasing age of birth mothers is also a factor, on top of overdiagnosis. In other words, this ever-onward push for college education is pushing young adults to avoid childbearing too long, and it's creating a generation of kids who are mentally unable to function.

That's as good a reason as anything I've heard so far. My wife was 35 when our son who was born who has  high-functioning autism or Asperger's syndrome.   

[jmyrlefuller]

That's as good a reason as anything I've heard so far. My wife was 35 when our son who was born high-functioning autism or Asperger's syndrome.

Not to mention it's killing my dating life... but that's another issue altogether!

[Atomic Cow]

Just like with ADD/ADHD, I think autism is being over diagnosed.

If the kid doesn't act exactly as expected, he/she is either autistic, ADD/ADHD, or both.

Just because a kid has an odd habit, does not mean there is anything mentally wrong.  Humans do not conform to a specific script and we're all different, something that seems to have been forgotten.

Not it seems that nearly everyone could technically be diagnosed with some kind of disorder.

[Oceander]

That's as good a reason as anything I've heard so far. My wife was 35 when our son who was born who has  high-functioning autism or Asperger's syndrome.   

Funny; my wife was 42 when our daughter was born, and she's got nary a sign of autism/aspergers.