Rascal77s wrote:
Don't worry this epidemic, as governments call it, won't drain the public coffers too much longer. There's a cure on the way, early detection in the fetus and a good old fashioned abortion.
Er... no. This doesn't work. Autism is polygenic and multifactorial with epigenetic effects involved both in the causation and expression of the phenotype.
In plain English, that means "No, we aren't going to be able to find a reliable genetic test anytime soon."
danmac wrote:
study also found that autism disorders were almost five times more common in boys. And that an increasingly large proportion of children with autism have IQs of 85 or higher — a finding that contradicts a past assumption that most autistic kids had IQs of 70 or lower.
Because those new cases are kids who before now would have been written off as nerds, losers, or badly-behaved. Those new diagnoses are a good thing--kids who are on the borders of the spectrum, finally getting accommodations and hopefully no longer falling through the cracks for lack of the minor help that lets them participate fully in the school system.
31 Mar 2012, 4:22 pm
