You'd be interested in this study showing "all of the increase in autism frequency between 2000 and 2016 was for autism with mild or no significant adaptive challenges."
Having worked in the industry both behind the scenes (HR) and on the front lines (hands-on care giver) I cannot stress enough how VALUABLE an autism diagnosis is for securing government funded aid. $$$$ Everything from being paid to care for your own child, free respite care so you can go on dates or have free time, free housekeeping, free transportation, free medical insurance, and (often) guaranteed disability income for the child at age 18. Quantifying the financial benefits of a diagnosis would be an interesting vein of study imo …
I concede that this is totally anecdotal - but I am over 50 years old and in my lifetime going back to say my teen years the frequency (%) and severity of people I personally know who have family members with some form of autism has undoubtedly and noticeably increased. Maybe I shouldn't believe my lying eyes?
A question that has still not been adequately addressed is whether mild “autism” is etiologically related to severe autism, traditionally diagnosed. One could examine whether they run in the same families, for instance.
I knew I had severe mast cell disease from 1980. Akin et al. first described MCAS in 2010, marking the identification of this condition as distinct. Is my illness, found in 2-15% of the population, a myth because some declare it an epidemic? No baseline yet. Medicine is discovering new diseases all the time. The ability to detect improves with time. The prevalences in the early days have to, by definition, increase. This does not & never has defined an epidemic until a baseline rate has been determined. Neurodivergence is not an epidemic, just better understood and detected.
You'd be interested in this study showing "all of the increase in autism frequency between 2000 and 2016 was for autism with mild or no significant adaptive challenges."
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12853238/
Having worked in the industry both behind the scenes (HR) and on the front lines (hands-on care giver) I cannot stress enough how VALUABLE an autism diagnosis is for securing government funded aid. $$$$ Everything from being paid to care for your own child, free respite care so you can go on dates or have free time, free housekeeping, free transportation, free medical insurance, and (often) guaranteed disability income for the child at age 18. Quantifying the financial benefits of a diagnosis would be an interesting vein of study imo …
I concede that this is totally anecdotal - but I am over 50 years old and in my lifetime going back to say my teen years the frequency (%) and severity of people I personally know who have family members with some form of autism has undoubtedly and noticeably increased. Maybe I shouldn't believe my lying eyes?
A question that has still not been adequately addressed is whether mild “autism” is etiologically related to severe autism, traditionally diagnosed. One could examine whether they run in the same families, for instance.
I knew I had severe mast cell disease from 1980. Akin et al. first described MCAS in 2010, marking the identification of this condition as distinct. Is my illness, found in 2-15% of the population, a myth because some declare it an epidemic? No baseline yet. Medicine is discovering new diseases all the time. The ability to detect improves with time. The prevalences in the early days have to, by definition, increase. This does not & never has defined an epidemic until a baseline rate has been determined. Neurodivergence is not an epidemic, just better understood and detected.