Time: For the First Time, a Census of Autistic Adults (There is no "Epidemic")

[Odin2005]

I repeat, THERE IS NO EPIDEMIC!!!

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1927415,00.html

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Among the many great mysteries of autism is this: Where are all the adults with the disorder? In California, for instance, about 80% of people identified as having an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are 18 or under. Studies by the Centers for Disease Control and Protection (CDC) indicate that about 1 in 150 children in the U.S. have autism, but despite the fact that autism is by definition a lifelong condition, the agency doesn't have any numbers for adults. Neither has anyone else. Until now.

On Sept. 22, England's National Health Service (NHS) released the first study of autism in the general adult population. The findings confirm the intuitive assumption: that ASD is just as common in adults as it is in children. Researchers at the University of Leicester, working with the NHS Information Center found that roughly 1 in 100 adults are on the spectrum — the same rate found for children in England, Japan, Canada and, for that matter, New Jersey.

This finding would also appear to contradict the commonplace idea that autism rates have exploded in the two decades. Researchers found no significant differences in autism prevalence among people they surveyed in their 20s, 30s, 40s, right up through their 70s. "This suggests that the factors that lead to developing autism appear to be constant," said Dr. Terry Brugha, professor of psychiatry at the University of Leicester and lead author of the study. "I think what our survey suggests doesn't go with the idea that the prevalence is rising."

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Can we stop with the "Epidemic" scaremongering now?

[imdjh]

1. Waiting for the other shoe to drop.

They have so expanded the definition of autism in my lifetime that they are now claiming that it accounts for 1% of the population. So my "next shoe to drop" expectation would be that someone would overlay autism to the full behavioral spectrum, and in essence we will see that 99% of autism falls into what we might consider a normal variation. In other words, a "high functioning" autistic person is simply a person who behaves or processes differently, but isn't really all that unusual in a world of nonlinear behavioral spectrum.

[KT2000]

2. whether you call it autism

or not, there is an epidemic of essentially brain damage in children. You can break down all that are now considered to belong to the autism spectrum into individual disorders. Some of these were once considered psychiatric illnesses but are no longer.
You can add to the children with autism, those with learning and behavioral disabilities and there is something that needs to be addressed.
In fact, it was once believed that if a child showed improvement, he/she could not be considered to have autism.

have you visited any public school lately? checked out the special ed classes? The kids are in trouble no matter what you call it.

[Odin2005]

4. "Those kids" existed in the past, they were just shipped off to institutions.

Oh, and Autism isn't "brain damage".

[KT2000]

6. Please check out

articles from Philip Landrigan MD as he hs attempted to tabulate the costs of childhood illness that have changed from infectious diseases to increased allergies, lead poisoning and neurological conditions.

Brain damage is a generic term to describe brain dysfunction that can occur while a fetus and after birth.

[Smarmie Doofus]

3. K and R #5

In the US, what used to be called "brain damaged", neurologically impaired or just plain MR is now called ASD. Hence the "explosion", the "epidemic".

I teach an "autism" special ed class.

[xchrom]

5. ...

:popcorn: :popcorn: