'Autism Epidemic' Challenged by UK Study

[HuckleB]

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/AutismNews/autism-epidemic-challenged-uk-study/story?id=13518453&nwltr=WN_topstory_more

"Is autism a growing epidemic or not? Recent reports have suggested that autism is on the rise, but a new study from the U.K. finds that the prevalence of this developmental disorder has remained stable. It may be that doctors are diagnosing it more often in young people -- not that it's actually happening more.

Researchers performed clinical assessments of 618 adults and found that nearly 1 percent of Britons over age 16 suffered from autism -- meaning the adult rate is no higher than that seen among children in the U.K.

"If the rate of autism is actually increasing rapidly, you'd expect rates to be much lower in older adults, but we didn't find that," says Dr. Traolach Brugha, lead author on the study and psychiatrist at the University of Leicester, U.K. "We found similar rates at 16 up to the 70s and 80s. That suggests that the number of people developing the condition have not changed over the last seventy or eighty years."

Though this study deals with the U.K. population, these findings call into questions whether the much-discussed "autism epidemic" in the U.S. is a real phenomenon.

..."

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Just FYI...

[HuckleB]

1. Similar results noted in an earlier study.

Study finds no evidence of autism surge in children
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/article6844270.ece

[SheilaT]

2. I've been thinking the exact

same thing.

Forty plus years ago when I was in school, handicapped kids just didn't attend, or if they did they were in special classrooms, and not expected to learn much.

Kids dropped out of school and perhaps got jobs. Manual labor was a lot more available back then, before the idea that absolutely everyone needed to attend college had taken hold.

There's also a lot less tolerance of different behavior these days, so kids who don't conform quite tightly to expected classroom behavior get diagnosed and all too often medicated.

[trotsky]

3. When I was in school we didn't have any autistic kids.

They were "retarded" or "special needs," or they were that really strange kid who kept to himself and was fascinated by one particular subject and could talk to you for hours on it if you let him, but otherwise had not one word to say to anyone.

[xchrom]

4. recommend

[mhatrw]

5. time to read the fine print

http://www.medpagetoday.com/Neurology/Autism/26248

"They cited several limitations to their analysis, primarily the small absolute number of cases they identified (19 in total among all groups). Others included the lack of information from family members or others familiar with study participants, and lack of data on the distribution of particular autism spectrum subtypes such as Asperger syndrome versus overt autism.

[HuckleB]

6. As usual, you have a need to respond despite having no actual reason to respond.

Thanks for making me laugh, as usual.

:rofl:

[Odin2005]

7. I posted this study a while ago. It shuts up the crazies real quick.

[HuckleB]

8. This one was just published.

[Odin2005]

9. Doh, I thought this was the same one I posted.

[HuckleB]

10. It's all good.

A repeat finding is still worthy.