Autism: study finds 12-fold rise in cases
Number of sufferers may be up to 50 per cent higher, putting pressure on services
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Independent Minds
The number of children with autism has risen 12-fold in the past 30 years and may be 50 per cent higher than previously suspected, the most detailed study of the condition yet has found.
Up to 250,000 children have autism or a related condition on the autistic spectrum, but have not been diagnosed, researchers say. They are in addition to the 500,000 children who are known to be affected.
The authoritative study by Professor Simon Baron-Cohen and colleagues of the Autism Research Centre at Cambridge University, published in the British Journal of Psychiatry, sets a new benchmark for future studies of the prevalence of autism in the UK, and has grave implications for education and other public services which are already overstretched. The findings imply that many more young people may need intensive lifelong support.
But the authors dismissed suggestions that changes in lifestyle or the environment were behind the rise. They put it down to improved awareness and detection, and the inclusion of milder conditions within the diagnosis.
Autism is a disorder of social functioning which makes it difficult for sufferers to form relationships and to communicate with other people. In the 1990s it was recognised that there was a spectrum of cases from the severely to the mildly affected, and the diagnosis of Asperger's syndrome was included to cover those at the milder end.
Autism has become controversial over the last 10 years because of a claimed link with the MMR vaccine, which has since been discredited. The rise in cases was cited by campaigners as evidence for the damaging effects of MMR, which was introduced in 1988.
In 2006, researchers from Guy's and St Thomas' medical school calculated that 1 per cent of the population had a diagnosis on the autistic spectrum, equivalent to 500,000 children. That figure has become the gold standard in autism research.
Now Professor Baron-Cohen has revised the figure, using three separate research methods for increased accuracy on a population of 20,000 children in Cambridgeshire.
A survey of Cambridge school registers of children with special educational needs revealed 1 per cent of children affected. This was confirmed by a questionnaire survey of parents which uncovered 41 cases. But a subsequent screening test given to the same parents, designed to detect children with autism, revealed an additional 11 children who were undiagnosed.
The results showed that, when the undiagnosed cases were included, one in 64 children had the condition, equivalent to 1.5 per cent of the population. Extrapolating them to the whole population raised the total number of children affected from 500,000 to 750,000. For every three cases that are diagnosed, a further two may be undiagnosed, the researchers concluded.
Professor Baron-Cohen said: "If services are trying to plan ahead they have to take into account that for every three cases they know about there may be two more they don't. That is important. Currently many services are stretched, they are barely managing to keep up and there are long waits for diagnosis."
He added: "Not everyone may need a diagnosis if they are already getting good support. But services need to be prepared. People usually seek a diagnosis when things start to go wrong, for example when they leave home and are losing the support of parents."
The National Autistic Society said early diagnosis was essential. Parents often wait years for accurate diagnosis. Mark Lever, NAS Chief Executive, said: "An accurate figure for the number of people with autism... is vital to ensure a sufficient level of services and appropriate support to meet people's needs."
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Comments
we should be looking far more closely at the causes of autism- my guess is that it will prove to be the result of genetic ( not a popular idea) and especially social( the result of today's inward-looking faerful family lives only previously paralleled in isolated rural communities) inbreeding
actually in many ways he reminds me of all those errant bankers and MP's we are reading so much about - he 'just doesn't get it', and its no joke at all...
whatever, individuals and society need some protection from bulls blundering around in china shops, whatever the cause and the label?
we should be looking far more closely at the causes of autism- my guess is that it will prove to be the result of genetic and especially social inbreeding
Baron Cohen has obviously looked closely at the possible causes of autism and the only thing he is certain about is that it's not due to MMR or vaccination in general. Where cometh such certainty?
PS. I guess you believe that all the incestuous inbreeding that goes on in British society today is the cause of the 'genetic' prevalence increase in autism.
Autism, if it exists, is a trait of personality, not an illness or a disease.
How many children will be dosed up on medications and treated as separate human beings, I would suggest that is worse than the supposed Autism itself.
Every quiet introverted child will be treated as ill and removed from society and the world dominated by boorish hapless extroverts.
I would suggest there is a Diana effect going on here and the charities and the drug companies need to leave off young people who have no defence against the 'wisdom' of adults. :-)
My son has recently been diagnosed as being on the autistic spectrum. We are optimistic that we will be able to help him acquire the social and communication skills that he needs to help him function as independently as possible. In my son's case, this means many thousands of hours of therapy. He is taking Respiradal, which has helped him respond to the therapy received so far. This costs around 4 GBP a week where we live, and the consensus of parents of autistic children is that it is effective in helping alleviate some of the behavioural symptoms that make learning difficult.
We are fortunate when we compare him to other children we have met since the diagnosis - our son is a very happy, healthy child, who enjoys running, fresh air and music. He is affectionate, and not introverted in any way. But believe me, he is autistic, and has many symptoms of children on the autism spectrum, including avoidance of eye contact, loss of speech, fascination with repetitive motion, constipation, and many others. He does not yet speak, and clearly requires extensive speech therapy to help him acquire meaningful speech.
To help educate yourself, there is an excellent little volume by Professor Baron-Cohen himself. . If you wish to take your studies further, read Temple Grandin's Thinking in Pictures. You might then start to understand that being autistic means that your brain is wired differently, and autistic people process information very differently to you or I.
ooops ! wrong box
Reply at bottom of this page
In a roundabout way this has always led to my belief that autism is hereditary, and from an early age my sister and myself have been complete agreement that we are unable to have children until the necessary tests have been created that will tell us whether or not we are carrying the 'mutant gene' as such... I understand that I may be misguided in these believes, but as no one has come up with an alternative, it seems the only logical explanation.
I know that it may seem harsh that I would only want a child if he or she wasn't autistic, but if you have no experience of living and growing up in a family with an autistic child you would have no idea about how tough it is. I saw what it did to my parents, blaming themselves and each other, and the heartache when we had to finally decide we couldn't look after him anymore and he had to be put into residential care. I spent a lot of my own childhood caring for him, as he needed someone with him at all times. I would never want to go through this again, or put a partner through it. It tore my family apart, as much as we love my brother, we couldn't have a normal life or do things that other families could, simple things like going on holiday never happened, and having to give away your child or sibling because you simply can't cope with him anymore or offer the help and support they need is just horrific.
To get to the point, if autism is hereditary and the majority of cases haven't been diagnosed yet, we should certainly be doing more to increase awareness and to make it not such a taboo subject, so we can offer help and support to people like myself concerned about our genetics and passing on the autistic gene. Some of my family members kept my brothers condition hidden from other family members for years, telling them he was deprived of oxygen at birth! Old fashioned attitudes to autism really don't help...
I have heard that there are tests that are being developed to see if people with relatives who are autistic are carrying the gene, but no one I have spoken too seems to know anything about it! If anyone has any information, help or advice they can offer, it would be greatly appreciated.
Ives, M. and Munro, N. (2002). Caring for a child with autism. A practical guide for parents. Jessica Kingsley Publishers. London. This book has some very good information, presented very well.
Ive been reading some comments, and some people should really consider what they hear or read before they copy and paste. Autistic spectrum disorder is a syndrome characterised by a triad of social, communication and imagination impairments and repetitive behaviours Morris (2005). It is not a hoax and it is not an industry. As a Speech langauge therapist i can tell you that is can be very serious and life changing for families and the person and they need a lot of help and guidance to be able to raise these special children well.
Original video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpmTivdG
http://mediamatters.org/research/200807
Interview follow up: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJcJZnGD
"Over medicalisation and over-diagnosis of children as profit centres"
This is institutional abuse of children.
Then they hijacked a private law case with a public law matter, so they could also medicate this child with beta blockers, which were also totally unnecessary and would have worked against the education which the child was finally receiving. It cost the parent large amounts of cash to fight the case for the child. That has not yet been recouped. Both child and parent are reduced to poverty.. but at least the threat of NHS child abduction - a very real threat - has been removed for the time being. PS I have documentary proof of what is stated here.
The prevalence of autism is about one child in 150, so rather less than than 1%. But trust me, most diagnoses of autism are correct, as doctors have far better tools for identifying autism than was the case 20 years ago.
The diagnosis will enable children to start getting appropriate therapies. These are not necessarily medication based.
http://www.ageofautism.com/2009/04/auti
There are major problems here - first of all the the theory that autism is solely genetically determined is floating dead in the water (although no one doubts that genetic vulnerability is an issue) but also no one is prepared to look at what environmental triggers might be implicated, particularly after what has been done to Andrew Wakefield. I have said before that Baron-Cohen's willingness to watch Wakefield dragged through the mud and speak ill of his research does him little credit. He also stated in a recent interview with Polly Tommey that was an gut association with autism, and that the vaccine issue needed investigating.
The truth is that the etiology of autistic spectrum disorders is a complex issue and more than two decades of research by Baron-Cohen and like minded colleagues has led virtually nowhere. They have let us all down, and hogged the bulk of the research money.
In reply to your thread "Autism is a business!!..."
I don't doubt that at one time in history deafness and blindness was seen as some sort of "fraud" or pretence too. At one time the deaf wre also thought to be inadequate, inept and even stupid - hence the term "deaf and DUMB" Today, the majority of well informed people no longer doubt that the deaf community are a valuable component, indeed an asset to the diversity of our society.
One day your source of hatred will be diminished and you will have to accept that autism is a realism.
In reply to your thread "Autism is a business!!..."
I don't doubt that at one time in history deafness and blindness was seen as some sort of "fraud" or pretence too. At one time the deaf wre also thought to be inadequate, inept and even stupid - hence the term "deaf and DUMB" Today, the majority of well informed people no longer doubt that the deaf community are a valuable component, indeed an asset to the diversity of our society.
The main source of fraud going on is the claims of people setting up businesses claiming to have a 'Cure' for autism and people like you and Savage who put these corrupt ideas into peoples heads in the first place.
One day your hatred will be diminished and you will have to accept that autism is a realism.
Though you are right about Savage's claim to be abkle to cure autism based on no medical evidence.
No. In the minds of caring parents, the MMR vaccine cover-up was only a part of the problem. And the fact that the establishment has effectively 'crucified' Wakefield, does not necessarily make what he said wrong.
The other problem was that vaccines contained mercury. When parents realised that the MMR vaccine contained mercury, they fought to opt for single vaccines. However they were not told that these vaccines also contained mercury.
When enough fuss was made, the NHS, having denied that mercury content, , very quietly stated that mercury had been removed from vaccines. (Why would that be?)
The main problem now is that no thinking parent trusts anyone to tell the truth.
The welfare of their gentle, precious child, it far more important to them than strangers who tell them lies.
And if the child has autism, and a diagnosis, and an SEN Statement, then the 'fun' really begins. From personal experience, in Stockport, every 'professional' is then prepared to lie about the help which is Statemented to be given to the child at school, and which is just not given.
Records show that children with autism are being deliberately denied their chance of a decent, educated and socialised life, by the very professionals who are being paid to help them.
If parents object, they are treated as social pariahs and banned from all dealings with employees of the local authority. Even those who help those beleaguered parents are banned from dealings. Over years of struggle, the child is being effectively denied its human rights.
That is the reality.
I personally think we need difference in society.
Many great thinkers and scientists are within this supposed autistic spectrum.
Quiet, odd, a bit strange, out of the box, fantasists, blue sky thinkers, solitary, weird.
If we get rid of this trait of personality we will deny ourselves so much.
Why over the past few years have thousands of children who do not fit into a system of the 'normal' suddenly been thrown into a box of autism, that's a form of mass hysteria, that's not a rational diagnosis.
Much of what is considered 'normal' these days is defined by mass media and we all hopefully know that is not the real world.
What happens when a child is considered 'not normal', he is sent to the doctor, upper pressure to give a diagnosis, he gives one, prescribes the child a tablet, which the drug companies have so conveniently provided for and everyone is happy.
Of course there are some very good doctors and not every child is given a tablet.
The child has no defence against so forces.
What happens when the perfect drug and god forbid genetic therapies get rid of this 'illness'.
Many deaf and blind people now take the stance that there is nothing wrong with them, that they do not need curing or treatment and indeed celebrate their difference :-)
Please forgive me if I appear to telling you what is right for your young man as I have no right to say anything.
It's just the trend is ominous.
Diagnostic mistakes are made - no question. Many people were surprised when they learned of my son's diagnosis. But come and meet him, and I'll show you the many things he does that 'neurotypical' kids (like you and me were) just don't do.
As for the industries around autism: yes, we need more occupational therapists, we need more speech therapists, we need more carers able to help parents with their children. We need more doctors who can recognize autism (yep, many don't know much about it), and more teachers who know how to work with kids on the spectrum (many don't). My son can't afford to be on a six-month waiting list for a speech therapist. We need a bigger autism industry, if the waiting lists are anything to go by.
re: mind_ful (would that be of crap?)
Baron-Cohen is sometimes misguided and like his cousin, Sasha - he has a 'love-affair' with the media but he's not crazy.
Autism has always existed. It wasn't until the 20th century that we had a name for it. Besides which, Hans Asperger' discovery and research into Asperger Syndrome was only translated into English in 1992. Prior to these formal diagnoses, people on the autism Spectrum would have been put into Bedlam and other such institutions. Others would have been called 'backward' or the village idiot. Some would geniuses.
In more recent time, many people recieved incorrect diagnoses' when they were really on the Autism Spectrum. Others had 'slipped through the net' until adulthood, through lack of knowledge and understanding of the Autism Spectrum. Some never get a diagnosis if they have no suppport from family and services.