Second, although a California study claimed to show that these diagnostic expansions didn't contribute to the increased number of diagnosed California cases from the 1980s to the 1990s, the authors of the Current Directions in Psychological Science article identified a serious flaw in the unpublished California study's reasoning.
Finally, according to the authors, a third reason not to believe in an autism epidemic involves the U.S., Department of Education's annual "child count" data, which are used as supportive evidence of an autism epidemic. What some people fail to realize is that the Department of Education didn't even have a reporting category for autism until the 1991-1992 school year. Therefore, dramatic increases in the number of children served in the public schools under this reporting category would have been expected throughout the 1990s. The authors propose that the "child count" numbers will most likely continue because they still don't match the numbers reported in recent surveys that use more rigorous epidemiological methods.
The report does not dispute the likelihood that more individuals fit current day diagnostic criteria than fit previous diagnostic criteria, or that more individuals are receiving autism diagnoses than before. But given that the diagnostic criteria have been purposely broadened, there is greater public awareness, and epidemiological studies use updated and more consistent definitions and go to greater lengths to identify cases, the authors caution against calling these logical increases an "epidemic."
The report appears in the latest issue of Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the American Psychological Society. Media wishing to receive a PDF of this article please contact journalnews@bos.blackwellpublishing.net
Current Directions in Psychological Science publishes concise reviews on the latest advances in theory and research spanning all of scientific psychology and its applications. The American Psychological Society represents psychologists advocating science-based research in the public's interest.
Morton Ann Gernsbacher is a Vilas Research Professor and the Sir Frederic Bartlett Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is President-Elect of the American Psychological Society. Michelle Dawson is a Research Associate at the Pervasive Developmental Disorders Specialized Clinic at the University of Montréal. H. Hill Goldsmith is a UW Foundation Fluno Bascom Professor and Leona Tyler Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Drs. Gernsbacher and Goldsmith are parents of an autistic child, and Ms. Dawson is autistic.
Dr. Gernsbacher is available for questions and interviews.
Journal
Current Directions in Psychological Science