Anxiety Stress And Dissociation
Several types of spectrum are in use in these areas, some of which are being considered in the DSM-5.
A generalized anxiety spectrum â this spectrum has been defined by duration of symptoms: a type lasting over six months , over one month , or lasting two weeks or less , and also isolated anxiety symptoms not meeting criteria for any type.
A social anxiety spectrum â this has been defined to span shyness to social anxiety disorder, including typical and atypical presentations, isolated signs and symptoms, and elements of avoidant personality disorder.
A panic–agoraphobia spectrum â due to the heterogeneity found in individual clinical presentations of panic disorder and agoraphobia, attempts have been made to identify symptom clusters in addition to those included in the DSM diagnoses, including through the development of a dimensional questionnaire measure.
A post-traumatic stress spectrum or trauma and loss spectrum â work in this area has sought to go beyond the DSM category and consider in more detail a spectrum of severity of symptoms , as well as a spectrum in terms of the nature of the stressor and a spectrum of how people respond to trauma. This identifies a significant amount of symptoms and impairment below threshold for DSM diagnosis but nevertheless important, and potentially also present in other disorders a person might be diagnosed with.
The Rise Of Autism: Risk And Resistance In The Age Of Diagnosis
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Do More Children Have Autism Now Than Before
This article was originally posted on The Conversation on 5 December, 2011.
273% Increase in Autism and We Dont Know Why! Thursday, April 15, 1999, Los Angeles Times.
The rising prevalence of autism is a story destined to achieve headlines, take up column inches and even bump MasterChef from the top of the water-cooler gossip list. The headline above, which appeared in the influential Los Angeles Times, is perhaps the one that started off the frenzy of intrigue.
So, is there a rise in the number of children with autism? And if so, what is causing it?
The first question is by far the easier. Yes, there has most certainly been a steady rise in the incidence and prevalence of autism during the past half-a-century.
The finding is well-replicated and has been observed in every country that has an appropriate data source to tap.
The first survey was conducted in the 1960s and produced a prevalence estimate of one individual with autism in every 2,500 people or 0.04% of the population. When I first started my research in this area in the early 2000s, the oft-quoted figure was one in every 250 people .
In the last decade, studies have seemed to continually outdo each other with higher and higher prevalence figures, ranging from the 2005 Australian figure of one in every 160 people , to a recent South Korean study, which found an astonishingly high rate of one in every 38 people .
Conceptual change
Diagnostic substitution
Methodological differences
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Why Autism Is On The Rise
It is said that when you meet one person with Autism, you have met one person with Autism. Autism Spectrum Disorder is a neurodevelopmental disorder that is characterized by impaired social interaction, difficulties with verbal and non-verbal communication, and restricted or repetitive behaviours. These characteristics will range from mild to moderate to profound/severe. Regardless of how it presents, students will require different levels of support from educational assistants.
The need for those who have taken teaching assistant courses has grown over the last few years and for a wide range of reasons. According to Autism BC, as of 2018, 1 in 51 children aged 6 to 18 have been identified as having ASD. In Canada, ASD is 4.5 times more common in boys than in girls . There are many reasons and theories why this is so. More research is being done to understand how boys and girls present differently and how treatments need to be more specific for girls.
Why is Autism Increasing in Prevalence?
There is still an opinion that the number of individuals with autism are rising outside of the increase due to the improvement in diagnosis. Therefore, the belief that the number of individuals with autism is increasing hasnt been ruled out nor has it been confirmed. The ultimate point is that there are more diagnosed cases in Canada per capita than there were previously whether that is due to better diagnosing, an overall increase in cases or both.
Earlier Diagnosis
Why Autism Diagnoses Have Soared
The number of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder has risen consistently and dramatically since the 1990s. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , as of 2016, approximately 1 in 54 children in the United States was diagnosed with autism. In 2000, the corresponding rate was approximately 1 in 150 children. The rate is notably higher in boys than in girls .
There’s no way to pinpoint an exact reason for this increase, but it’s likely that significant changes in diagnostic criteria and reporting practices, in addition to greater awareness and possibly environmental factors, are responsible.
Here’s a look at some of the main theories about why autism is on the rise.
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Why Is Autism Increasing Dramatically
Let us start by reiterating some facts about autism.
- Multiple large-scale studies have established, with adequate proof, that vaccines do not cause autism.
- Autism does not develop due to bad parenting choices.
- Autistic spectrum disorders are not contagious.
Although the number of children diagnosed with autism has steadily increased over the last few years, this is not because more children develop autism now than before.
Experts cite the following reasons to explain the rise in autism cases in recent years.
ASD includes a broad spectrum of disorders with following symptoms, thus accommodating more kids under the title of autism.
Zeroing In On The Genetics Of Autism
Some evidence that genetics plays a role in autism and ASD is provided by research on twins. According to the CDC, if one identical twin has autism, there’s a 75% chance the other twin will be affected, too. If a fraternal twin is affected, the other twin has a 3% chance of having autism.
Parents who give birth to a child with ASD have up to an 8% chance of having another child who is also affected, the CDC estimates.
Many U.S. couples have delayed childbearing, and the older ages of both the mother and the father have been linked with a higher risk of having children with ASD, according to a report in the journal Pediatrics. With age could come increased risk for genetic mutations or other genetic problems.
Specific genetic problems help explain only a small percentage of autism cases so far. “We know that major chromosomal abnormalities are identified in about 5% of ASD,” says Milunsky of Boston University. “We know that Fragile X syndrome is responsible for about 3%.” Fragile X syndrome, a family of genetic conditions, is the most common cause of inherited mental impairment, and also the most common known cause of autism or autism-like behaviors.
“Hot spots” of genetic instability may play a role, researchers say. For instance, a team of researchers reported in The New England Journal of Medicine that duplications and deletions on a specific chromosome seem to be associated with some cases of autism.
But genetics is not the whole story, he and other experts say.
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Autism: A True Increase Or Semantics
The jump in autism cases has spawned not only alarm but also debate about whether the number of children with autism could have increased that much in a relatively brief time.
“There’s a lot of controversy about that,” says Jeff Milunsky, MD, director of clinical genetics and associate director of the Center for Human Genetics at Boston University.
Two researchers who tracked the rate of autism in children born in the same area of England from 1992 to 1995 and then from 1996 to 1998 found that the rates were comparable, and concluded that the incidence of autism was stable. The study was published in the American Journal of Psychiatry in 2005.
But, Milunsky says, several studies have documented an increase in the U.S.
In a recent report in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood, Milunsky and his colleagues point to several studies finding an increase in autism rates. In 2003, for instance, a large study conducted in Atlanta found that one in 166 to one in 250 children had autism, according to a report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Another study conducted by the CDC in 14 states found an overall prevalence of one in 152, which Milunsky and others say is the generally accepted figure today.
“A kid labeled autistic today could have been labeled mentally retarded 10 years ago in the same school system,” Shattuck says. It wasn’t until 1992 that schools began to include autism as a special education classification.
With Your Help We Can Help Those In Need
Autism is a disorder. It is a term that includes many different developmental disorders of the psyche with similar symptoms. A person with a similar diagnosis has a number of problems that are reflected in social spheres, during communication, sometimes behavior is noticeable, which is determined by narrow interests, monotony.This diagnosis can be seen all over the planet, in any nation, it does not depend on factors such as economic status, religion, culture, race. However, numerous studies indicate that boys are more likely to be diagnosed with this disorder than girls, at about a 4: 1 ratio.
Is Autism on the Rise?
There is ample evidence to show that autism is on the rise. While some medical experts say that this is because of environmental factors, others say that better diagnostic practices are revealing more cases of autism.
We have 20 times more cases of autism than we had in 1980. Moreover, data from Autism Speaks indicates that autism has continued to rise, becoming three times more in the last 15 years.
The following are a few causes for the rise in autism:
Better Diagnostics
Increased Awareness of Autism
Environmental Factors
Developments in Medical Science
Genetic Factors
So far, researchers have found that genetics is responsible for only a small percentage of cases of autism.
But studies to identify specific genes as responsible for autism are in progress and experts agree that genetics is not the only cause of autism.
Its a Puzzle
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Screening Guidelines For Autism
Continued awareness of autism has resulted in increased routine screening by pediatricians, another contributing factor to a rise in cases. The American Academy of Pediatricians recommends that all children be screened for ASD at ages 18 and 24 months, along with regular developmental surveillance.
Changes In Reporting Practices
The CDC’s report on autism statistics is based on health and school records for 8-year-old children who live in select counties across the United States. The researchers are part of the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network, which the CDC set up in 2000 to estimate autism prevalence.
Clinicians scanned the school records for signs of autism features, such as social problems or repetitive behaviors. They use data from 8-year-olds because most children are enrolled in school and have had routine health assessments by that age. However, the data is not based on whether children have been given an actual diagnosis of ASD.
Up until 1990, autism was not included in legislation aimed at guaranteeing an education to individuals with disabilities. In 1990, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act added autism to its list of conditions covered under the act. The new law also added transition services and assistive technologies to its requirements. Autism had never been tracked as an educational statistic before 1990. Since 1990, the incidence of autism in schools has risen dramatically.
Another set of prevalence estimates published in Pediatrics in 2019 found that the prevalence of autism in the United States rose from 1 in 91 children in 2009 to 1 in 40 in 2017. The results were based on telephone or in-person interviews with the parents of 88,530 children aged 3 to 17 years, collected by the CDC as part of its National Health Interview Survey.
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Is Autism Actually On The Rise It’s Not As Straightforward As You Might Think
31 verified experts answered this question on independent fact-checking platform Metafact.io. 17 answered ‘likely’ or higher, this is one of them.
The prevalence of autism the number of cases diagnosed at any age, has increased hugely.
But prevalence is not the same as incidence – the number of cases born with autism. There is no reason to believe that the incidence of autism has increased.
An increase in the prevalence of cases was inevitable given the recognition that the classic definition of autism was too narrow and there was a whole spectrum of autism .
The historic factors in the increase in diagnosed cases was the widening of the criteria, to fit them also to adults, and to be able to apply them to cases previously diagnosed merely with learning disability, where this meant less access to special support.
For instance, a study found that the average administrative prevalence of autism among children in the US had increased from 0.6 to 3.1 per 1000 from 1994 to 2003. But this increase was accounted for by a .
This was not the only factor that drove up prevalence figures: Cases with only very mild symptoms previously not clinically diagnosed at all, were now also included in the autism category. It turns out that it is these cases which are the most likely cause of the increase in prevalence since 2000.
These figures were reported at the International Society for Autism Research 2018.
Autism: Almost One In 20 Ni Schoolchildren Have Diagnosis
BBC News NI Education Correspondent
Almost one in every 20 school-age children in Northern Ireland has been diagnosed with autism.
More than 13,000 children between the ages of four to 15 have a diagnosis of autism – an estimated 4.5% of the school aged population.
That is according to new figures published by the Department of Health .
The proportion of children with autism in schools in Northern Ireland has more than trebled in a decade.
In 2020/21, 4.5% of children aged four to 16 had been identified with autism or Asperger’s syndrome, up from 1.2% in 2009.
While the DoH cautioned against direct comparison between years due to changes in the ways autism data is collected, they said an increasing number of children with all ages were being diagnosed with autism.
Boys were three times more likely to have a diagnosis of autism than girls.
The number of children of school-age with autism has been increasing by about 10% a year for the past decade.
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Why Is Autisms On The Rise
September 15, 2010, maureen,
Why Is Autisms On The Rise?
These days there are several new born babies who are autistic. This only proves that autism is really on the rise. There are several reasons behind this and one of such is the lack of discipline for most mothers at present time. It is also one of the causes of being a parent at a very young age.
Autism can be acquired through genes however it can also be acquired through the negligence of the parents especially the mother who is carrying the child. Well, this is not to imply that all parents and couples who get married at a young age are irresponsible. The fact is that there are really people and parents who are so responsible.
Autism is usually caused by actions of the parents of an unborn child especially the ones that are not ready in facing the responsibilities of being a parent. Because they are not ready, the tendency is that they will attempt to abort the baby that they are carrying on their womb. But what can happen if they not succeed in doing this?
This is one main causes of autism because of the trauma that an unborn child experience in the womb of his mother, the trauma is there and it triggers mindset abnormality. Another thing is that the child may suffer the side effects of the harsh medicines that a mother takes in attempt to abort their baby. In a point of fact this is one main reason why autism is on the rise.
Zeroing In On Environmental Triggers
A variety of environmental triggers is under investigation as a cause or contributing factor to the development of ASD, especially in a genetically vulnerable child.
Exposure to pesticides during pregnancy may boost risk. In a study published in Environmental Health Perspectives, researchers compared 465 children diagnosed with ASD with nearly 7,000 children without the diagnosis, noting whether the mothers lived near agricultural areas using pesticides.
The risk of having ASD increased with the poundage of pesticides applied and with the proximity of the women’s homes to the fields.
Besides pesticide exposure, exposure to organic pollutants that have built up in the environment are another area of concern, says Pessah of UC Davis. For instance, polychlorinated biphenyls or PCBs, substances previously found in electrical equipment, fluorescent lighting and other products, are no longer produced in the U.S. but linger in the environment, he says. “Particular types of PCBs are developmental neurotoxins,” he says.
Another toxin to the brain is mercury in its organic form. But according to a report published in Pediatrics, there is no evidence that children with autism in the U.S. have increased mercury concentrations or environmental exposures. Though many parents of children with ASD believe their child’s condition was caused by vaccines that used to contain thimerosal , the Institute of Medicine concludes there is no causal association.
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