New Definition of Autism May Exclude Many, Study Suggests - Lord Volkmar

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New Definition of Autism May Exclude Many, Study Suggests

By BENEDICT CAREY

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/20/health/research/new-autism-definition-would-ex\

clude-many-study-suggests.html

Proposed changes in the definition of autism would sharply reduce the

skyrocketing rate at which the disorder is diagnosed and may make it

harder for many people who would no longer meet the criteria to get

health, educational and social services, a new analysis suggests.

The definition is under review by an expert panel appointed by the

American Psychiatric Association, which is completing work on the fifth

edition of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

The D.S.M, as the manual is known, is the standard reference for mental

disorders, driving research, treatment and insurance decisions.

The study results, presented on Thursday at a meeting of the Icelandic

Medical Association, are still preliminary, but they offer the latest

and most dramatic estimate of how tightening the criteria for autism

could affect the rate of diagnosis. Rates of autism and related

disorders like Asperger syndrome have taken off since the early 1980s,

to prevalence rates as high as one in 100 children in some places. Many

researchers suspect that these numbers are inflated because of vagueness

in the current criteria.

“The proposed changes would put an end to the autism epidemic,†said Dr.

Fred R. Volkmar, director of the Child Study Center at Yale University

School of Medicine and an author of the new analysis. “We would nip it

in the bud — think of it that way.â€....

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