I was going to write a blog about the latest autism research studies. I started reading the research paper and in the first line it said, '1:44 people diagnosed with ASD'. 1:44??! I could have sworn last time I checked (which wasn't long ago) it was 1:54.
I checked with the CDC and sure enough, 1:44 is correct.
A study done in the UK found that "Increases could be due to growth in prevalence or, more likely, increased reporting and application of diagnosis. Rising diagnosis among adults, females and higher functioning individuals suggest augmented recognition underpins these changes." Time trends in autism diagnosis over 20 years: a UK population‐based cohort study - Russell - 2022 - Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry - Wiley Online Library
While I do believe that awareness, reporting, and the growing span of the spectrum all play a significant role in the rate of increase...I still wonder if we're missing something.
I believe a similar rise in mental health awareness would affect the number of people diagnosed with ADHD/ADD. However, those number have dropped over the last few years.
So here we are...1:44. Mental health services are still in short supply, government financial assistance is still difficult to qualify for, public education is still not equipped to handle the load...but ready or not (and we're not), ASD is here and growing fast.
-Dr. Celeste Chamberlain
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