The Astounding Increase in Autism Diagnosis
You may have noticed that more and more children are being diagnosed with Autism these days. There has been a great deal of controversy due to this. For instance, some believe that these children are being misdiagnosed, and that doctors are just using the term ‘autism’ to explain away the unexplainable.
This isn’t necessarily the case, however. Most of those in the medical community agree that it isn’t an effort to explain the unexplainable. Instead, the increase in diagnoses of autism is due to changes in the way the diagnosis is made. This does not mean, however, that there are more actual cases of autism than there ever were in the past. It simply means that many cases were not properly diagnosed in the past.
Other factors have also played a role in the increased diagnosis of autism, but again, it all goes back to the diagnosis, and not an increase in cases. These other factors include how patients are referred from one doctor to another for an appropriate diagnosis, the availability of services associated with autism in various geographical regions, and how aware the public and medical community is concerning autism.
There are still those, however, who believe that there is an actual increase in autism cases, and that this is not due to improved diagnostic practices, but instead to certain environmental risks that we have today. Although environmental causes of autism have not been scientifically proven, they do include exposure to certain foods, pesticides, smoking, alcohol, illegal drugs, vaccines, heavy metals, infectious diseases, and other types of exposures.
Because of this, many parents are opting not to have their children immunized against various diseases, such as measles, when the option exists. Many parents who have autistic children first started noticing symptoms of autism around the time the child received their immunization, which accounts for this. However, in reality, this would be about the age that symptoms would first start appearing – regardless of the immunization. There is no scientific proof that immunizations increase the likelihood of developing autism at all, and most researchers agree that it would be medically impossible for this to happen.
Autism is no different than depression in regards to how it has progressed. These days, there has been an increase in depression diagnosis, just as there has been an increase in autism diagnosis. This increase is because as a society we have become more aware of the warning signs and symptoms of both disorders, which makes it easier for us to recognize autism or depression in ourselves and in others.
Angela likes talking about Landau Scrubs and Urbane Scrubs as well as Landau Scrub Pants and also likes writing articles about various topics.
