Children ‘may grow out of autism’
Dr Thomas Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health, said: “Although the diagnosis of autism is not usually lost over time, the findings suggest that there is a very wide range of possible outcomes.
“Subsequent reports from this study should tell us more about the nature of autism and the role of therapy and other factors in the long term outcome for these children.”
It could be that autism cannot always be accurately defined or diagnosed, particularly since the condition affects people in different ways.
With intensive therapy and support, it’s possible for a small sub-group of high functioning individuals with autism to learn coping behaviours and strategies which would ‘mask’ their underlying condition”
Dr Judith Gould
National Autistic Society
Indeed, experts have disagreed about what autism is.
The American Psychiatric Association is currently revising its diagnostic manual - the “bible” for doctors that lists every psychiatric disorder and their symptoms.
Its new version proposes changes he UK’s National Autistic Society says could affect the way diagnoses will be given to people on the autism spectrum.
One in every 88 U.S. children - and one in 54 boys - has autism, the CDC now estimates.
The latest analysis, from a 2008 survey, shows autism is up 23% since 2006 and 78% since 2002.
“This is a large number of children and families affected by autism,” study leader Marshalyn Yeargin-Allsopp, MD, chief of the CDC’s developmental disabilities branch, tells WebMD.
“With nearly a doubling of prevalence since CDC started tracking in 1992, autism is officially becoming an epidemic in the U.S. We are dealing with a national emergency that is in need of a national plan,” Mark Roithmayr, president of the advocacy group Autism Speaks, said at a CDC teleconference held to announce the findings.
More autism research and better services for people living with autism will be expensive. But the cost of autism already is astronomical, according to preliminary findings from an Autism Speaks-funded study by Martin Knapp, PhD, of the London School of Economics, and David Mandell, ScD, of the University of Pennsylvania.
At the new 2008 prevalence rate of one in 88 American children, autism costs the U.S. $137 billion a year. It has been estimated that 45% of Americans with autism have an intellectual disability. The lifetime cost for each person who has an intellectual disability related to autism is $2.3 million, Knapp and Mandell estimate.
Instead of using the current terms of autistic disorder, Asperger’s disorder, childhood disintegrative disorder and PDD-NOS (pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified), people will be given an umbrella diagnosis of “autism spectrum disorder”.
And their impairments will be reduced to two main areas - social communication/interaction and restricted, repetitive patterns of behaviour, interests, or activities.
Most diagnoses in the UK are based on the International Classification of Diseases (ICD), published by the World Health Organization, which is up for revision in 2015.
According to the National Autistic Society, more than one in every 100 people, more than 500,000 people in all, in the UK have autism.
About a fifth, an estimated 106,000, are school-aged children.
Dr Judith Gould, director of the National Autistic Society’s Lorna Wing Centre for Autism, said: “Autism is a lifelong disability affecting the way that people communicate and interact with others.
“This study is looking at a small sample of high functioning people with autism and we would urge people not to jump to conclusions about the nature and complexity of autism, as well its longevity.
“With intensive therapy and support, it’s possible for a small sub-group of high functioning individuals with autism to learn coping behaviours and strategies which would ‘mask’ their underlying condition and change their scoring in the diagnostic tests used to determine their condition in this research.
“This research acknowledges that a diagnosis of autism is not usually lost over time and it is important to recognise the support that people with autism need in order to live the lives of their choosing.”
She said getting a diagnosis could be a critical milestone for children with autism and their families, often helping parents to understand their children better and helping them to support their children in reaching their full potential.
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