Autism Diagnoses Rise Among U.S. Children, CDC Finds

[MyshkinCommaPrince]

30. The criteria do keep shifting

As noted elsewhere in the thread, Autistic Spectrum disorders are now part of what we mean when we discuss "autism". In the past, the term would have been limited to classic Kanner autism. This makes it perhaps hard to effectively compare statistics for today with those of the past.

However, the 2013 DSM-V, the new edition, will be changing the definitions for autism again. Some (but not all) of the experts and professionals involved with rewriting the standards for the DSM-V have commented that part of the intent is to reduce the number of diagnoses. The DSM-IV standards are apparently considered to be too broad, too vague, and not scientifically robust enough, and some seem to think they underlie the apparent increase in the incidence of autism. (Being a bit paranoid, myself, I put this together with the ominous-sounding "War on Autism" and suspect they're trying to hide the problem by changing the definitions. Some of the new criteria could potentially be used to remove the diagnosis of any adult with an autism diagnosis who wasn't diagnosed as a child. I guess we'll see what happens....) At any rate, among the changes will be the removal of Asperger's Syndrome and the merging of several DSM-IV conditions under the umbrella label of Autistic Spectrum Disorder, with a level of severity specified.