Studies Show 1 in 100 Kids Have Autism

New Number a Rise on Previously Accepted 1 in 150 Estimate; Doctor's Wonder About "True Increase"

(CBS/AP)  Two new government studies indicate about 1 in 100 children have autism disorders - higher than a previous U.S. estimate of 1 in 150.

Greater awareness, broader definitions and spotting autism in younger children may explain some of the increase, federal health officials said.

"The concern here is that buried in these numbers is a true increase," said Dr. Thomas Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health. "We're going to have to think very hard about what we're going to do for the 1 in 100."

Figuring out how many children have autism is extremely difficult because diagnosis is based on a child's behavior, said Dr. Susan E. Levy of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics subcommittee on autism.

"With diabetes you can get a blood test," said Levy. "As of yet, there's no consistent biologic marker we can use to make the diagnosis of autism."

The new estimate would mean about 673,000 American children have autism. Previous estimates put the number at about 560,000.

CBS News medical correspondent Dr. Jennifer Ashton reports that boys are four-times more likely than girls to be diagnosed with autism disorders.

Some experts say the term "autism" is overused, reports Ashton, but view the increased awareness as a positive.

"Maybe the label 'autistic specrum disorder' is correct, maybe it's not - however, if we identify that there is a need, that means we're going to do intervention," Dr. Max Wiznitzer told CBS News.

One of the studies stems from the 2007 National Survey of Children's Health. The results were released Monday, and published in October's Pediatrics.

In that study, based on telephone surveys, parents reported about 1 in 91 children, ages 3 to 17, had autism, including milder forms such as Asperger's syndrome.

The other government estimate has not been formally released yet. But because of the new published findings, officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention decided to announce Friday during an embargoed press briefing that their preliminary findings also show about 1 in 100 children have the disorders.

The CDC uses an in-depth method for its estimate, said CDC researcher Catherine Rice. An agency network reviews the education and health records of 8-year-old children in selected cities and determines whether the children meet the diagnosis. Autism experts generally consider this method more rigorous than a telephone survey.

President Obama has made autism a priority for research, Insel said. Federal stimulus money has been earmarked for autism, and a 2006 law pumped millions of dollars of new federal money into autism research, screening and treatment.

The published findings, which include state-level data, will help the government plan new services, said Michael Kogan, a researcher with the federal Health Resources and Services Administration, who led the new study, which lists authors from several government agencies, including CDC.

The findings are based on the results of a national telephone survey of more than 78,000 parents of children ages 3 to 17. The survey dealt with many health issues and included two questions on autism.

Parents were asked whether they'd ever been told by a doctor or other health care provider that their child had autism, Asperger's syndrome, pervasive developmental disorder or other autism spectrum disorder.

If the parent said yes, they were asked if their child currently has autism or an autism spectrum disorder. "Yes" to both questions was counted as a child with an autism disorder.

The survey questions were flawed, said autism researcher Irva Hertz-Picciotto of the University of California, Davis. A broad definition, read to some parents who asked for clarification, didn't include "repetitive behaviors," Hertz-Picciotto said. And parents weren't asked about a professional diagnosis in the second question.

Children with autism can have trouble communicating and interacting socially. They may have poor eye contact and engage in repetitive behavior such as rocking or hand-flapping.

"The wording and definition invited much broader interpretation," Hertz-Picciotto said, and researchers didn't check what parents said against medical records.

In another finding, nearly 40 percent of the children ever diagnosed with autism disorders didn't currently have autism, the parents reported. That rate is much higher than ever found by autism recovery researchers. Outside experts said they doubt it reflects a true rate of recoveries. Autism could have been suspected and later ruled out for some of the children, the authors wrote.

One of the new study's authors was supported in part by a grant from the advocacy group Autism Speaks. The others work for federal agencies.

"Autism is a highly prevalent disorder," said Geraldine Dawson, chief science officer of Autism Speaks. "We're looking at a major public health challenge."

---

For more information about autism, check out these Web sites:
American Academy of Pediatrics
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention autism page
Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)
Autism Speaks

[Virgil-1]

Depends on who did the studying!

[straight_mom]

Wow. Lots of guessing going on here.

Autism was "official defined and labeled" in 1943 by Leo Kanner. Asperger's was labeled in 1944 by Hans Asperger. So to say it wasn't PREVALENT 20 or 30 years ago is incorrect.

Autism is a neurological disorder that affects the social skills area of the brain. Children cannot tell if a person is joking or not. Tone/infliction means nothing to them. Speech pragmatics are lacking. They cannot understand or interpret social cues -- the non-verbal body language. In many cases, children have many Sensory problems (too loud, too bright, wants to spin around all the time to feel centered). Their sensory system is out of whack. The wiring in the brain is not the same as neurotypical children. However, many are above average in intelligence and some cases are savants.

Maternity Vitamins and saccharin have nothing to do with Autism. I know a number of parents that statement does not pertain to them.

Age of father: Research says it has nothing to do with it. Not true in our case.

Using drugs and pot during conception. Wrong again. I am a drug-free mother as well as the father. Most of the autism parents I know have never done drugs.

My child was observed once a week for 6 months before they gave him a diagnosis. I wanted to make DARN sure they were correct. This was followed up a second neuropsychologists. Despite what the public may THINK, it is not all that easy to get a diagnosis of Autism. Waiting lists for neuropsychologists can be up to a year. Most insurance companies do not cover ANY autism-related services. Many of the professionals are over $120 per hour. We want our son to be as successful as he can in life, nor do we want him to be dependent on "they system" as an adult in life. So we are paying for everything out of pocket and just pray it will be enough.

[rf35]

By the definition their using, most of the kids considered "nerds" when I was growing up would now be called autistic. This has indeed become a trendy diagnosis. It cheapens and demeans those people who really do have an autism disorder and sucks up money and resources that could be spent on kids who have an actual need for them. Shame on the doctors who are throwing this diagnosis on any socially awkward child or anyone who doesn't develop exactly as the textbook says they should. Even children are becoming pawns in the neverending quest by the greedy for more and more and more...

[wifandmom]

These comments make me so sad for the truly innocent children that will struggle with this diagnosis and the families that will work hard to help them.

All I know is that I love my son; all I desire for him is to understand and to be understood. My child was born to a father under the age of 30 and a mother who was seldom medicated. When I heard the word Autism, it was a sigh of relief and a punch in the stomach all at the same time. Only because there was finally a word to help me understand him and a vision of the challenges before us all at the same time.

You can call it what you want and believe what you want, but until you have lived it, you know nothing about it. It doesn't matter what causes it or if you believe it is real, the reality of it is nothing I care to explain to people who have already made up their minds.

Please seek not to be understood, but, instead to understand.

[DaVicar8]

Michael Savage was right...these numbers a WAY blown out of porportion by mothers who want an excuse for their children being brats, and by doctors who want to make a buck treating them.

[Stan_Lippmann]

Susan Sto Helit (also spelled Sto-Helit), once referred to as Susan Death, is a fictional character in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series of fantasy novels. She is the "granddaughter" of Death, the Disc's Grim Reaper, and, as such, has "inherited" a number of his abilities. She has to date appeared in three Discworld novels: Soul Music, Hogfather, and Thief of Time. She is also referenced (though not by name) at the end of Mort, when her father invites Death to her christening. She is one of the Discworld series's principal protagonists. Being both human and supernatural, Susan is frequently (and reluctantly) forced away from her "normal" life to do battle with various malign supernatural forces or, barring that, to take on her grandfather's job in his absence. Death tends to employ her in his battles against the Auditors of Reality, particularly in situations where he has no power or influence. As the series progresses, she also begins to take on roles educating children, so that, as Pratchett mentions in The Art of Discworld, she has "ended up, via that unconscious evolution that dogs [his] characters, a kind of Goth Mary Poppins".

[kenhamlett]

As Terrie Moffitt says:
Moffitt notes that money and insurance coverage also drive this debate: ?How many psychiatric patients are there? Well, there are as many as America can afford to treat.? -Science News article
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/47444/title/Rates_of_common_mental_disorders_double_up

"Autism is a highly prevalent disorder," said Geraldine Dawson, chief science officer of Autism Speaks. "We're looking at a major public health challenge."
I disagree. That means it is within the range of normal human development. Of course it is harder to scam a buck that way. Isn't it?

My interpretation sizes up the quote and today's article. If you have means, you have a mental illness. Science and integrity are irrelevant with these people. From every situation I have ever seen, children are there to be victimized as is everyone else they can entrap.

Off topic : I find Science News an interesting way to keep up with an assortment of scientific information.

[SusanStoHelit]

A ridiculously flawed study - the parents were given a definition of autism that was so broad any shy child qualified, then asked whether they thought the child had autism. Not whether they had been properly diagnosed, and even proper diagnosis is wrong about 40% of the time (40% of the kids diagnosed as autism spectrum don't have it a few years later - real autism doesn't go away).

[kenhamlett]

The definition of autism is officially just as broad as that of the study. At some point in their development every child could be diagnosed as autistic. Even a child with some other infirmity could easily fit into the definition.
It is not the study alone that is flawed but the entire industry.

[curiously1]

Yeah, and the other 99 are lazy. But, since we don't believe in the phrase "BAD KIDS", I am sure there is a medical/psychological terminology for that.

[differnet]

Blame vaccines! Of course, it couldn't possibly be OUR own faults. Research shows that the number one indicator that a child will have autism is an older father. Just as older mothers are more likely to have a child with Downs Syndrome, old sperm is the cause of most autism. I know men won't like thinking that they have a biological clock too, but there you are. It's not the vaccines; it's the choices we are making as a society.

[summarex]

I reiterate

There is something very dangerous going on here. Autism has now been defined in such a way that almost anyone who is socially awkward, or even outspoken can be diagnosed essentially as a mental defective. This smacks of the worse moments in hoiistory.

Here's a homework assignment fpor all of you. find a 90 something and ask them how people in their youth were different from people today. After a few superficial comments they will give you a story of about people who were far more expressive and in touch wityh themselves than they are now. Most of whom would be considered autistic today!

[kenhamlett]

CORRECT!
Just a little bit of trivia How many people knew that it was the supposedly mental defectives that were targeted first by the Nazis?The reader might also be amazed that the shrinks that went on to help the Nazis as full time jobs were the ones who targeted their patients for execution.
The diagnosis of s shrink is inherently and historically corrupt.

[filmguy107]

Right on! What is "Neurotypical" anyway? All humans are on a continuum of IQ, social ease, height, eye color range, hair color range, etc. Who decides what is "normal"..or desirable. It takes all kinds to make the "world go 'round.

[SkirtLifter]

From the article:

""Federal stimulus money has been earmarked for autism,"" <This appears to be a misuse of fed stimulus money>

""...and a 2006 law pumped millions of dollars of new federal money into autism research, screening and treatment. <Human Nature dictates that fraud will increase with millions of dollars up for grabs...of course the number of Autism diagnosis has increase>

President Obama has made autism a priority for research, Insel said. <This prioritizing will create a windfall of false diagnosis. If Autism were an illness with defining characteristics, like a detectable gene, or titer, or physical abnormality, then fraud would be more difficult.>

<Watch for all the kids winding up in your child's classroom with Autism>

[Lawyers-Guns-n-Money-01]

by SkirtLifter October 5, 2009 11:47 AM EDT
<Watch for all the kids winding up in your child's classroom with Autism>
=========================================

Wait for it to become the next full contact sport.

'Hey, I'm on the autism team.'

Of course, all the cool kids will want to join.

[SusanStoHelit]

I ran into this. My daughter had a speech delay. Out of the best of motives (helping me get more help for her), they were willing to fudge a bit to place her under an autism related diagnosis so there would be more money for her. She's not remotely autistic - highly social in fact. But - there'd be more help and services for her, and the people just want to help you get the best for your child...

[summarex]

Careful
Autism is way too easy to apply to almost anyone. Many of those so diagnosed are in fact the kind of people who most differentiate humanity from the rest of the animal kingdom. They are in fact more human than the norm! Be particularly wary of any attempt to treat autiusm from an industrial standpoint. Otherwise, we will wind up with a nation of high functioning robots.

[ellensmithee]

>Parents were asked whether they'd ever been told by a doctor or other health care provider that their child had autism, Asperger's syndrome, pervasive developmental disorder or other autism spectrum disorder.

>If the parent said yes, they were asked if their child currently has autism or an autism spectrum disorder. "Yes" to both questions was counted as a child with an autism disorder.

>In another finding, nearly 40 percent of the children ever diagnosed with autism disorders didn't currently have autism

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
This has got to be the most flawed medical study I've ever seen in my life! Clearly, the gov't is working hard to protect Big Pharma, the BIGGEST lobby in Washington.

Autism is due to mercury in vaccinations, and if you think Big Pharma cares, you're fooling yourself. They know it, and they couldn't care less, figuring the population's too big anyway. The traits of autism is exactly the same as mercury poisoning.

There is huge money in treatment, little money in cures, and they know that. And if they can get you to take a pill every day, they've got you!

Did you know the Bushes are part-owners of Ely Lilly, the drug manufacturer? It's no wonder to me why Bush wouldn't let Medicare negotiate Rx prices. We pay the highest Rx prices in the world.

Beware of the evil Rx companies. They care about your wallet, not your health.

[SusanStoHelit]

This is a flawed study.

But if you look at a more solid study - you'd know that there is no link between vaccines and autism. The largest study followed children from birth, some vaccinated, some unvaccinated. The unvaccinated developed autism at PRECISELY the same rate as the vaccinated. Every single study shows that same thing.

[loriald]

We have continually been giving more and more vaccines at younger and younger ages and autism has continually been rising and rising.
Stop the madness and wake up people.

[dontknowitall]

Almost sounds like a NAZI medical experiment program.

[imredeemed-2009]

Totally agree about vaccines and other medications that are supposedly safe. I can only imagine these numbers will increase with the new HINI vaccine. Not to mention the "new" illnesses that will arise. Why don't the researchers spend their time coming up with ways to boost our imune systems naturally, instead of destroying them totally?? If the imune system God gave us is working properly, there is no need for vaccines. But then that would be a huge cut in the profit margins for the drug companies, and we can't have that, now can we?

[SusanStoHelit]

Every single study shows the same thing. Unvaccinated kids get autism at PRECISELY the same rate, PRECISELY the same time as vaccinated kids. If there were any type of link, it would be visible. Studies of millions of kids, the result is always the same - unvaccinated kids get autism, at exactly the same rate as those who are vaccinated.

There is no connection.


Oh - and vaccines are how you boost your immune system naturally. It's mimicking what happens when you catch a disease and defeat it, in order to strengthen your immune system - imredeemed - that is quite simply all a vaccine is.

So easy to declaim any profit you yourself don't make. Maybe you should go look at pictures of people dying of polio, measles, mumps, all these diseases we've forgotten. My grandparents haven't forgotten them, seeing their childhood friends die, seeing the rare unfortunate survivor of polio crippled and twisted.

[dontknowitall]

Sex,Drugs and Rock & Roll. Not enough sex. To many drugs and the Devils Music has tainted the gene pool since the Flower child/Peace movement of the 60's and 70's.

[lawyertom1]

One has to be concerned with these types of increases that a diagnosis is becoming trendy, and that the increase (at least some to much of it) lacks reality. A study reported last year in the British magazine The Economist specifically notes this factor vis-a-vis the increase in autism that has been reported by other sources. The cause of the increase in autism is more likely due to a change in diagnostic criteria, the study concluded. The bottom line is not that there are now, for some bizarre reason, more autistic individuals, but that it is now fashionable to acknowledge their existence. The study reevaluated past diagnoses of individuals with symptoms that might today be deemed evidence of autism, but were diagnosed in the past with other disorders. When reevaluated using modern criteria, it was concluded that a number of these cases were misdiagnosed; the individuals were autistic. Given the limited number of cases reviewed, this conclusion needs to be validated by a larger study. However, the thesis appears to have potential merit. That of course does not beg the question of what treatment should be offered for these individuals, but it does strongly indicate that the so-called increase is not real; we are simply recognizing that which has always been the case. See http://www.economist.com/sciencetechnology/PrinterFriendly.cfm?story_id=11014498&source=login_payBarrier and http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/119389650/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0 for a report upon the study and the study itself.

[credibility2]

Science also needs to look at the parents as having abnormalities that are transferred to their kid, possible DNA mutation, also contributing to this over-diagnosed condition.

[credibility2]

Could this possibly be due to misdiagnoses? I think many parents who aren't actively involved with their kids are relieved when a doctor labels their kid with an excuse for their behavior. It's ridiculous to think that this condition wasn't prevalent twenty or thirty years ago. Sounds to me like there are some genuine cases, but not at this level. I think many of these parents are afflicted with a condition called I refuse to have patience with my kid and raise it properly.

[Sloughfoot]

Right on!

[difuccisara1]

Your statement is exactly what the government wants you to believe so the real issues regarding the rise can be swept under the rug. I wish it was because of bad parenting because it would make the crisis easier to swallow.

[SusanStoHelit]

If you read how they did the study - it's clearly that. They read the parents a definition of autism that amounts to asking if their kid is shy, and omits major symptoms of autism. No shock so many said yes.

In addition - many diagnosticians are very quick to call any learning deficit, any need autism spectrum. Because there is money for autism spectrum, and that way the parents get the help they want for their child. Speech delay - little money. Autism spectrum - lotsa money. So - trying to help the parents, there's a huge push to call anything autism, close or not. Happened to my child - speech delay, loves to organize - ridiculously social - and they offered to call that autism, in order to help us get more services.

[bubbadubba]

Why not just say 99 in 100 have Autism?
That would get a lot of government tax money for a lot of organizations and their high paid employees.
That's what this is really about.