Reply #36: It's not an epidemic. [View All]

[varkam]

Rates of autism diagnoses have been increasing, but it is unlikely that this reflects a concurrent rise in actual incidence of the illness. Since the 80's, there has been a massive increase in the amount of training given to docs with respect to recognizing ASDs. Whereas it used to be that many autistic kids were diagnosed as being mentally retarded or as having a developmental disorder NOS, now they're being diagnosed with ASDs.

In addition, the diagnostic criteria for ASDs have been greatly expanded. Autism used to be a fairly specific diagnosis, but now ASD is really an umbrella term that covers a lot of people it didn't used to.

In other words, the notion that there's a sudden epidemic of autism is incorrect.