U.S. autism rate surges, CDC reports (1 in 68)

&gt; <i>“It could be that doctors are getting better at identifying these children, there could be a growing number of children with high intelligence [who are autistic], or it could be both,” she said.</i><p>The article doesn&#x27;t mention that the DSM-5 went into force last year. The criteria for diagnosing Autism has changed since the DSM-IV, and this could also explain the jump in diagnoses.<p>(This is alluded to with the line &quot;Milder forms, such as Asperger’s syndrome, are now considered to fall along the autism spectrum.&quot; -- The entry for &quot;Asperger disorder&quot; in the DSM-5 is now replaced with a pointer to see the entry for &quot;Autism&quot;.)

There is no &quot;test&quot; for autism, no blood market, no brain scan. What is the false positive number? This sounds like the diagnosis for &quot;hysteria&quot; in women 50 years ago .

I&#x27;m weary of diagnosing behaviour that used to be considered within the norm, though maybe at the edge, as a medical condition.<p>Asperger&#x27;s has no clear measurable part to diagnose, it is not treatable per se, and its symptoms are all within the normal spectrum of human behaviour.<p>There&#x27;s nothing wrong with saying that a particular kid might need more support, but I wonder where it leads society if all not entirely within the norm behaviours start to be classified and handled as medical problems.

Direct link to the CDC report :<p>Prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorder Among Children Aged 8 Years — Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network, 11 Sites, United States, 2010 Surveillance Summaries March 28, 2014 &#x2F; 63(SS02);1-21<p><a href="http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/ss6302a1.htm?s_cid=ss6302a1_w" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.cdc.gov&#x2F;mmwr&#x2F;preview&#x2F;mmwrhtml&#x2F;ss6302a1.htm?s_cid=...</a>

The scary part to me is how the CDC chose to frame the new data. They put up a &quot;10 things to know&quot; (1) list to distill the data for the media and readers uninterested in looking at the full study.<p>One item in the top 10 highlights that 46% of these kids have average or above average IQ. What the CDC doesn&#x27;t highlight in the top 10 is the 31% that are below! and the 23% that are &#x27;borderline&#x27;. The glass half full (not even half) optimism dismisses the large amount of these kids who have a very serious condition. Kids that cannot speak, that wander and die, that will require lifelong treatment. Why does the CDC choose to highlight the minority with a future and not the majority that face a rough road ahead?<p>The second issue with the Top 10 is that it only alludes to better diagnosis and awareness as a possibility for increases. It doesn&#x27;t mention any other possibilities, although most in the community are aware of well-publicized studies pointing to environmental conditions that show connection. (2)<p>1 <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/features/dsautismdata/" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.cdc.gov&#x2F;features&#x2F;dsautismdata&#x2F;</a> 2 <a href="http://time.com/25424/growing-evidence-that-autism-is-linked-to-pollution/" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;time.com&#x2F;25424&#x2F;growing-evidence-that-autism-is-linked...</a>

As someone who comes from the &quot;gifted side&quot; of the Autism Spectrum, its not that great. Having a brilliant mind is a great gift - but to be honest I would rather be of normal intelligence and be able to better understand how to be social than anything. Whats a brilliant mind going to do for you if your alone? Humans, even autistic ones are social creatures and require social interaction.<p>I do also agree with other posters that Autism diagnosis are on the rise due to a higher push for screenings of children, and awareness of autism. However I do think it still is possibly on the rise.<p>Aspergers is now Autism. I&#x27;m mixed on this, as even Aspergers has a spectrum. I&#x27;ve seen people with Aspergers that are near normal functioning, and those that are completley fixated on Star Trek to the point thats all they care about. I&#x27;ve also seen non verbal classic autistics hold down employment in a competitive employment atmosphere. The aspergers vs classic autistic has nothing to do with functioning level, it has to do with verbal delay (or it used to - its now the same).

&gt;&gt;1 in 68<p>I would like to see a geographic distribution heat map? Does anyone know of one?

Autism is the new ADHD. If 1 and 70 kids have a disorder that wasn&#x27;t a thing 20 years ago, something is wrong.<p>I had some speech issues when I was a kid that led to shyness and difficulty making friends until I got a bit older. I&#x27;m sure that I would have been classified in the spectrum on today&#x27;s standards. It&#x27;s a hot diagnosis.

I read somewhere Silicon Valley has the highest Autism rate, it&#x27;s likely high IQ gene made a difference too? Speaking from experience, early intervention is extremely effective.

could this be just a shift in how we measure and disagnose behaviors which lie outside the norm?<p>not long ago this behavior was not tolerated at all, and an autism diagnosis was undesirable. now we have more resources to identify and tolerate a broad range of behaviors<p>probably autism has not grown - it is as high (or low) as it has ever been. maybe we can identify autistic behaviors in figure of the past; maybe our own relatives.

Oh boy. My fear is how anti-vaxxers will use this news.

Well, how about not diagnosing your kid with autism just because he&#x27;s an uncontrollable little bastard, just to justify your bad parenting?(This includes ADD, ADHD, ASD).<p>That should bring the stat down.<p>Qualifier: not all obviously, but it has certainly become a way to remove personal responsibility as a parent.