Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Rise In Autism Is Related To Changes In Diagnosis, New Study Suggests

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ScienceDaily (Apr. 9, 2008) — New research suggests that many children diagnosed with severe language disorders in the 1980s and 1990s would today be diagnosed as having autism. The research supports the theory that the rise in the number of cases of autism may be related to changes in how it is diagnosed.

Professor Dorothy Bishop, a Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellow at the University of Oxford, led a study which revisited 38 adults, aged between 15-31, who had been diagnosed with having developmental language disorders as children rather than being autistic. Professor Bishop and colleagues looked at whether they now met current diagnostic criteria for autistic spectrum disorders, either through reports of their childhood behaviour or on the basis of their current behaviour. The results are published this month in the journal Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology.

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1 comment:

Maddy said...

I believe mental retardation was also a common 'mis-label.'
Best wishes