1 in 80 Maryland children diagnosed with autism, CDC says

[Rosa Luxemburg]

Source: http://www.baltimoresun.com/health/bs-hs-autism-ca

One in 88 American children has an autism spectrum disorder, according to a new estimate from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that is 23 percent higher than one the agency released three years ago.
The data come from 14 states, including Maryland, where 1 in 80 children is estimated to have the disorder. That ranks Maryland as having the seventh most cases.

The CDC revises its estimate every few years and the rate has been steadily increasing. Since 2002, the number of children with autism has increased 78 percent.


Read more: Link to source

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This is worrying. What is going on? Is this due to the environment or what?

[jeff47]

1. It's due to the astronomical number of conditions that are now called autism.

It's reached the point where the number and variety of conditions that are labeled autism is silly.

Not saying there aren't real autistic kids out there. But lots of people are slapping on the autistic label for a variety of reasons. And let's just say many of those reasons aren't in the interest of the child.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

2. Defined by psychiatrists

http://www.dsm5.org/proposedrevisions/pages/proposedrevision.aspx?rid=94

[jeff47]

3. ....and?

Didn't say that they weren't defining it. I'm saying they keep putting more and more stuff under the autism label.

"Back in my day" the kid had to be profoundly disabled to be autistic.
Then we got Aspergers Syndrome. We used to call said people "geeks" or "nerds". Now they have a medical condition.
Now being shy is enough.

[HockeyMom]

4. Geeks or Nerds

Will sit and look at Vacuum Cleaners on Ebay for hours? RED ones were the favorite.

[jeff47]

12. That's the people I said were profoundly disabled.

You've almost caught up with the point I was making.

[HockeyMom]

19. That is a common with Aspergers

They are high on the chart of the Autism spectrum. Not profound at all.

[CBGLuthier]

6. Gee, we are sorry if having a label for us offends you

Just call us geeks and nerds if that makes you more comfortable sunshine, personally I am glad to know WTF I have had such a fun fucking life.

[jeff47]

13. A name doesn't change what it is.

Naming it didn't actually do a damn thing to fix our "fun fucking" lives. Nor does it actually help any qualified therapists actually help their patients.

But it does allow alarming headlines about how many autistic people there are.

[1monster]

8. That is really overstating it. My work takes me into contact with autistic children

quite often, some very autistic, some medium, and some mildly. Believe me, even those who are "mildly" autistic have serious problems and are not arbitrarily diagnosed as autistic. My stepson was dianosed with eleven markers for autism before he was five years old, but never diagnosed as autistic until he was 35 years old. (Although we figured it out when he was 21.) This meant that he never received the necessary therapy or help, even though we went spent years and thousands and thousands of dollars paying for phychologists, psychiatrists, therapists, and neurologists.

Today, if a child is dianosed with seven markers for autism, he/she is diagnosed with some form of autism: autism, Aspergers Syndrome Pervasive Developmental Disorder, not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS), Childhood Disintegrative Disorder (very rare), and Rett Syndrome (found almost exclusively in girls).

Just because a child dose not show the classic symptoms of autism (can't stand to be touched, screaming fits, etc., does not mean that they are not autistic. Attitudes like yours, "nerd", "geeks" really tic me off because these people really need help and they don't get it because that attitude pretends that it isn't a medical condition. And being shy isn't enough to get a diagnosis.

I need to stop, before I violate TOS.

[jeff47]

14. I am speaking of the alarmist headlines about the rate of autism

Not the actual people who need help.

Let me just say I am extremely aware of this condition. I also do not believe they are all the same condition, and lumping them together is a disservice. Because it slows development of treatments for each of these individual problems.

The "shy" comment is a dig at some researchers who have decided that damn near anything is autistic, not the generally accepted guidelines.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

9. more and more stuff?

What stuff? Autism is a spectrum. It is not the case of ..'then we got Aspergers.'

I teach kids with Autism.

[jeff47]

15. Aspergers did not exist as a diagnosis until 1994.

In that there was no standard for it until 1994.

And those diagnoses have lead to alarming posts, like the op. Not because there are more autistic people, but because more people are labeled autistic.

That was the entirety of my point.

[Crowman1979]

5. It's probably due to pharma money sent to the CDC.

[HockeyMom]

7. No meds for austism

Nope, none of the kids I worked with were taking any kind of meds.

[aquart]

10. Worrying? I'd buy lottery tickets on those odds.

But have a baby?

[Odin2005]

11. More autistics are getting property diagnosed.

[lumberjack_jeff]

16. Drifting diagnoses and increased awareness cannot explain the rate of increase.

There is something environmental influencing it.

[Kind of Blue]

17. Interesting. My sister, who

is 36, has Asperger's Syndrome and was born in Maryland. At the time, we were told how fortunate we were to have the only school started to treat autistic kids in the U.S. located in our vicinity. Luckily, at that time, she was diagnosed very quickly with a label we'd never ever heard of. But I've always wondered why Maryland. The school had a wide range of kids in the spectrum. She learned the skills taught very quickly and it became difficult for her to deal in the environment and was taken out by the time she started high school. I'll never forget one mother saying to us on graduation day from the school - for those who could graduate and those they had no more to offer - please count your blessings, H - my sister - she said, will be able to care for herself and others unlike many of our kids. Her son was a bit older and diagnosed very late. But we all knew how lucky we were and thanked goodness the school was there for anything they could do to help.

I wish I could have read the article - the link no longer exists. I'll check around to see if a similar site carries the survey.

Thanks for posting!

[KT2000]

18. you can get an idea of this

by reading the environmental health research. Environmental health research is held separate from medical research so it just sits there piling up until a political atmosphere exists that allows action to be taken for the sake of preserving public health.

You can see some of the research at Environmental Health Perspectives
Silent Spring Institute
Foreign research journals - Scandinavian, Italy, Japan are good
search for health effects of pesticide chemicals, dioxin

Hormone mimicking chemicals affect the development of the brain of the fetus. So does exposure to certain pesticides.

We are in about the third decade of chemical com,panies holding off the requirement that their products be tested for the effects of hormone/endocrine mimicking.

Here is a good place to start and learn more resources: http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/doczone/2008/disappearingmale/chemicals.html

[AtopTheRacismNow]

20. Something about 'Matyrland'?

Or it's just where the poll occured?