Autism diagnosis spike linked to change in understanding

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A spike in the number of children diagnosed with autism in recent decades is largely due to doctors including kids with less severe behavioural symptoms, an international study has found.

The study found the 20-fold increase over the last 30 years was not because there have been more children being born with the disorder.

Professor Andrew Whitehouse, lead author of the study, said while researchers knew there was a significant increase of autism over the years, they did not understand why.

"What we really found is that the main increase in these numbers were due to children who had more milder autistic symptoms," he said.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-01-24/a ... ng/8207346

I agree with the premise of the article 100%

The definition of autism broadened greatly from 1994 on, when the DSM IV came out.

Awareness of autism by those covered under the broadened definition also increased incidence.

I also agree. More types of autism have been discovered and the testing has been improved as well. There has always been as many autistic in the past as there are now. There is not an epidemic going on.

Kraftie is right on - I wasn't diagnosed autistic when I was a kid, I was diagnosed when I was an adult. And I know as an adult I'm a lot better at faking "normal" than I was as a kid.