What is the reason for the apparent surge in diagnosis of autism?

Answer 1

As far as we can tell there has been no increase in actual instances of ADHD or Autism, but here has been an increase in diagnoses of ADHD - probably due to improved training of physicians.

There may be an appearance of increased ADHD or Autism because:

• Most people are not really experts on ADHD or Autism and cannot distinguish between these conditions and simple bad behavior by otherwise healthy children.
• Increased societal breakdown - especially increasing breakdown of the family support structure and the resulting loss of mentoring, nurturing and discipline provided in families - has led to significant increase in bad behavior in children. Coupled with the inability of most people to tell the difference between "brats" and those afflicted with ADHD or Autism spectrum disorders it makes it appear that these afflictions are increasing.

Answer 2

The increase in prevalence of autism is not universally accepted. Gernsbacher, Dawson, and Goldsmith (2005) believe that the autism epidemic advertised by autism advocacy groups or news articles is untrue. One of their reasons involves the changing diagnosis of autism. Prior to 1980, when the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III; American Psychiatric Association, 1980) recognized autism, estimates of prevalence were based on individual clinicians' and researchers' conceptions of autism. The DSM-III required six mandatory criteria for autism where as the DSM-IV (American Psychiatric Association, 1994) and DSM-IV-TR (American Psychiatric Association, 2000) require satisfying half of the 16 criteria. The authors also mentioned that the wording in the latter versions of the DSM were more inclusive than the more strict phrasing of the DSM-III. In addition to the amount of and wording of the criteria for autism, there are more diagnostic categories in the current DSM-IV-TR (2000) than the DSM-III (1980). In the DSM-III, there were two diagnostic categories, infantile autism and childhood onset pervasive developmental disorders. Twenty years later, the DSM-IV-TR (2000) has five Pervasive Developmental Disorders listed including three that comprise the autism spectrum: Autistic Disorder, Asperger's Disorder, and Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS). Asperger's Disorder and PDD-NOS have been considered milder variants of autism and account for nearly three fourths of ASD diagnoses (Chakrabarti & Fombonne, 2001). Another argument that autism is not actually increasing is that clinicians and the general population are simply more aware of the signs of autism than in the past and are therefore recognizing it more. Thus, clinicians are attempting to identify dimensions and are using more sensitive diagnostic tools to assess autism (MASH & Barkley, 2007).

Answer 3

The diagnostic criteria for autism has changed from the 1980s. Now, many more people are diagnosed with autism who, in the past, might have been diagnosed with a mental illness, ADHD, or some other disorder. I don't think that there are more people with autism than there were before-they are just being diagnosed better.

Answer 4

I had taken an wonderful autisum class in my last year of my BA. There is such an increase of autistic children due to more awareness. Aspergers was once not concidered to be in the autism spectrum and now that we know more about aspergers we have categorized it in a form of autisim. Years ago people did not know much about autism so it wasn't as big. Now the spectrum has gotten larger and we know that not two autistic individuals are the same.

Answer 5

The instance of Autism isn't increasing at all, as far as we're aware there is no increase at all - some people claim otherwise to push an agenda, for example Autism Speaks likes to pretend Autism is an epidemic on the rise in order to scare people into giving them more money.

Autism diagnosis is increasing, this is because of increased awareness of Autism, changes on how Autism is diagnosed, and improved pathways to diagnosis.

Answer 6

Primarily the reason for increasing diagnosis rates in autism is because of increased awareness of autism - we now know that autism isn't just a severe disorder but a difference in neurology which can show in a multitude of ways and bvy including those less severely effected by autism it means more are diagnosed as autistic. It's also a lot easier to seek diagnosis.

Answer 7

There is no increase in Autistic children, only an increase in diagnosis.

There have been major changes in diagnostic criteria over the last few decades - also consider that autism wasn't even a diagnosis until the 80's and Asperger Syndrome only became a diagnosis in 1994 (although now merged with Autism). With increased awareness and improved diagnosis it means more people are able to identify autism in their children and seek diagnosis.

Answer 8

There is absolutely no evidence to suggest that Autism is increasing at all, let alone dramatically.

Diagnosis of Autism is increasing due to changes in diagnostic criteria, increased awareness, and increased access to diagnosis - but even now Autism is likely under-diagnosed among certain groups. Until all Autistic people are diagnosed, or at least the majority, we can't even begin to determine how common Autism is let alone see if there is any increase in Autism. Remember Autism has only existed since the 1980's, obviously we're going to see far greater numbers of diagnosis now than in the 80's!

Answer 9

There's absolutely no proof that either ADHD or Autism are increasing.

There is an increase in diagnosis, this is because of changes to diagnosis and increased awareness. Consider that both conditions have only been discovered within the past few decades, obviously diagnosis rates are going to increase from zero! As it is both conditions may be under-diagnosed, so we have no idea how many Autistic people or people with ADHD there are, let alone able to determine if there are more people now than at any other time.

Answer 10

Diagnosis is increasing rapidly due to changes in diagnostic criteria, increased awareness of autism, easier access to diagnosis, and schools being able to spot autism in children. Remember that Autism has only been a diagnosis since the 1980's, so obviously you're going to see an increase in diagnosis from the 1980's. If you go back to 1970 you have ZERO autism diagnosis, whereas today 1 in 68 children are diagnosed as Autistic - it's an increase in diagnosis, not in Autistic people.