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Autism: Real Epidemic or Trendy Diagnosis
Filed under: In The News, Health
The number of children diagnosed with autism may change education. Credit: eyewire
More than one in every 100 American children has autism, according to a government report released Monday.
Or do they?
Their parents believe they do. And belief in autism is really what the study measures, Dr. Susan L. Hyman, a pediatrician at Golisano Children's Hospital in Rochester, N.Y., told The New York Times.
"This is an excellent study, but what it looks at is the prevalence of the diagnosis, not the disorder," she told the newspaper. "The next step scientifically is to see whether those diagnoses are being made accurately."
The study was overseen by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The results were published in Pediatrics, the official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Autism appears to be skyrocketing. Statistics from the U.S. Department of Education report a 657 percent increase in the number of children with autism between 1993 and 2003. The HHS study was based on a phone survey of 78,000 households. However, some 40 percent of the children reported as having autism or Asperger's syndrome later grew out of the symptoms or no longer qualified for the diagnosis -- leading some professional observers to ponder whether the condition is epidemic or merely trendy.
Paul Shattuck, a psychologist at the University of Wisconsin, observed in 2006 that diagnoses of mental retardation and learning disabilities declined as autism diagnoses shot up. He suggested physicians and educators might be lumping all children with vaguely autism-related symptoms into the same pool. And, if one percent of the nation's children truly has autism, the news has major consequences for America's school system.
Universities are training educators to deal with autism, Ilene Schwartz, the department head of the University of Washington's special education department, told the Birth to Thrive Online, a child development Web site. The problem is there isn't enough money for treatment and therapy.
"It would be like saying you have the best trained surgeons, but you don't have an operating room," Schwartz told the Web site.
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 1)
10-07-2009 @ 1:08PM
rheanna said...In order to be diagnosed as autstic, children have to meet a certain criteria for the diagnosis as set forth by the DSM IV....the criteria is split up into 3 groups...
(A) (qualitative impairment in social interaction),
(B) (qualitative impairments in communication), and
(C) (restricted repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behavior, interests and activities).
In order to be diagnosed, the child must exhibit a total of six (or more) items from (A), (B), and (C), with at least two from (A), and one each from (B) and (C).
In order for a doctor to even so much as contemplate diagnosing the child as autistic, they have to have several symptoms. Remember, Autism is NOT a disease like Cystic Fibrosis that has a specific cause and treatments that can be undergone to help alleviate the symptoms etc., No one knows for sure WHAT causes autism or HOW to cure it. The only help Autistic children can get, is therapy.
I dont think Autism is a "trendy" diagnosis. I, personally, think there is something in our environment that is causing these children to have these problems. Something that has only been introduced in the last several years. I believe it IS a real epidemic. my son doesnt meet the requirments for the Autism diagnosis because he is too social. But aside from that, he meets the other diagnostic criteria to an absolute T, ALL of it. We still a majority of the same obstacles that Autistic kids face. He has been diagnosed with PDD-NOS which is actually in the Autism spectrum. But my point in all of this is, is that there is SOMETHING out there that is causing kids to present symptoms classicly defined as autistic. And regardless of whether or not you actually diagnose the children as autistic or not, the symptoms are still there. And parents have to face this issue totally alone, and will probably never get any answers as to what is actually wrong with their child.
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10-07-2009 @ 1:52PM
SKL said...I don't know if I'd call it "trendy," but I do believe it is overdiagnosed and that some parents want the diagnosis because it gives them an excuse for not using tough love.
I also believe there may be something (or things) in the environment that increases the behaviors that are currently treated as autism symptoms (especially mild autism / aspergers). I think some kids are more sensitive to these things than most, and this leads to inconclusive studies performed on a cross-section of individuals. I think that if researchers are motivated to look for answers with an open mind, they will eventually refine their research and discover those links.
Thirdly, I believe that there are kids with quirks who have behaviors described in mild autism, but that doesn't necessarily mean they have a "problem" that needs that label. There is no perfect human being. Some of us have the gift of gab, while others of us can do complex math in our heads. Just because I might be much stronger in one ability than another doesn't mean I am a problem, statistic, outlier. I have a nephew who is surely on the "spectrum" (per current definitions), and there are things he needs to work on. He has challenges in school and with friends. But who doesn't? Thankfully, he is also able to focus deeply and memorize easily, and these gifts will no doubt benefit mankind as much as an extrovert's gift of gab.
There have always been quirky people, but I think this is the first generation that has tried to label them and thus exclude them from the "normal" crowd. That is sad on so many levels.
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10-09-2009 @ 10:27AM
shiloh said...As a Clinical Psychologist, I always get annoyed at this study and studies like them to be honest. I would love to see you guys write an article about what exactly is austism.
For example, there is no "Autism Spectrum Distorder" at the time. Psychologist go by the DSM-IV-TR. In the DSM-IV-TR there is nothing under that name and in a couple years in DSM-V makes an appericane, there might be due to the sudden epidemic where everyone thinks there kid has autism. Now, what really is autism? Does your kid talk? Do they voluntarily hug/kiss/or initiate contact? If there do, then your kid doesn't have Autism. I've seem a lot of these kids who have previously been diagnosed with the disorder and 9 out of 10 of them are alright.
I think more people need to look more into what EXACTLY is autism before thinking your child has suck a hard diagnosis. I recommend going to the source book of what we all use to diagnosis, DSM-IV-TR. Also, there are wonderful educational videos that depict autism around the internet.
Thank You.
Shiloh
8-15-2010 @ 11:05PM
r said...Shiloh, I find it hard to believe that you say you are a clinical psychologist and you say that if a child talks and voluntarily makes contact that they can not have autism. I work with children with autism and there are varying degrees of language. Most of my students are nonverbal but several are verbal and some do make voluntary initial contact. However they rarely know where to go from there. Or if they do it is routine and trained.
Article: I do think some kids are misdiagnosed as are kids with pretty much any other disorder that exists. Drs make mistakes, especially when it isn't an easy test such as for a chemical in the body or a gene but a spectrum of characteristics. But I also think that the reason for the numbers of diagnoses to be rising is also due to the growth of knowledge we have had over that past 10 years on Autism. In the past kids with autism were misdiagnosed as being mentally retarded. Now that we know more about the separate disorders, it is only natural that the numbers would flucuate. Furthermore autism appears to be affected by biological as well as environmental factors which is why it does seem to be that something in our environment today is bringing it to the surface in more children.
9-14-2011 @ 9:27AM
Marlin said...Like all medical conditions, they DO exist, but only to a small fraction of what is diagnosed. Yes the apparent increase in autism is a trend. I know a grandmother who took her granddaughter to the doctor after hearing about the possibilities of autism. The doctor suggested the child was reacting to her home life, which was not great. The grandmother continued looking for a doctor who would "find" something, and finally did find one who diagnosed autism. The point is, as the first doctor noted, it was a disciplinary problem due to lack of a proper environment. Now the child gets all kinds of special treatments, etc, for something she does not have. I have been a camp counselor for 15 years, and I have seen MANY conditions come and go with the wind, autism being only one of them. I administer the medications at camp. We have had ADD, ADHD, ODD, asthma (many of the kids had an inhaler, this was around 2001), autism, and most recently, dehydration. Ritalin used to be a norm for most of the kids. That has disappeared. Inhalers have all disappeared. I had one boy who "had autism." He was the best camper, polite, interacted well, no problems, helpful. Persons tell me that "well that can happen - they can appear normal." If he acts that way, and has autism, then autism is a virtue. By the way, behind the scenes, the teachers do NOT believe these kids have autism. It is the great label game. And labels ARE crippling. For what it is worth, just my experienced after many years.
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