Developmental disorder prevalence rates 'stable'

[HuckleB]

Developmental disorder prevalence rates 'stable'

http://www.psychiatrysource.com/psychsource/News/article1626.htm

"The incidence of developmental disorders in children appears to be stable, and observed long-term increases in prevalence could be entirely due to shifts in diagnostic concepts, say UK and Canadian researchers.

Epidemiological surveys of pervasive developmental disorders conducted over the last 15 years have reported increasing prevalence rates, say Suniti Chakrabarti, from the Child Development Centre in Stafford, UK, and Eric Fombonne, from McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

The researchers conducted a previous study of 15,500 children born between 1992 and 1995, finding a rate of developmental disorders of 62.6 per 10,000 children. To investigate changing patterns of prevalence, they returned to the same area and assessed 10,903 children born between 1996 and 1998.

Typically, health visitors, who were nurses with general and midwifery training, performed an initial examination of the children, and those that were referred for further investigation were intensively studied using standardized diagnostic interviews, psychometric tests, and medical workups.

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Certainly, follow-up studies are needed.