When the Minister of Health and Humanitarian Services announced Robert F. Kennedy Junior is the new autistic results of the government this month. He drew a very dark and controversial picture: autism has not become more prevalent, but “most cases are now severe.”
The idea that severe symptoms have become more common not supported by scientific evidence. Instead, new research announced this week at the annual meeting of the International Association for Autism Research in Seattle indicates that the share of autism with moderate or large symptoms has been relatively consistent from 2000 to 2016.
In the past few weeks, Kennedy has repeatedly pointed to autism as a “epidemic” that leads to more severe mental disability.
“This is an epidemic like anything we have seen before. It dwarms the glowing epidemic,” he is Fox News said This month. “This disrupts children throughout their lives.”
This description sparked a protest between some parents, preachers and medical experts, who say Kennedy uses a minority of cases to represent autism as a whole.
A Modern report One of the centers of control and prevention of diseases, I found that 1 in 31 children are diagnosed with autism on their eighth birthdays, but it did not distinguish between cases with mild or severe symptoms.
Kennedy was estimated at April 16th solutions to announce the results that a quarter of children with autism do not speak or use toilets without help. A Previous CDC study I found that approximately 27 % of people with autism were non -verbal or verbal.
Autism is a spectrum disorder, which means that it can have a group of manifestations – some of which are moderate, others are more clear – affect how people communicate, communicate, learn or act.
The new research that was shared this week found that only light cases rose from 2000 to 2016.
The analysis depends on data from the Autism and Autism Control Network at the Center for Disease Control, which tracks autism throughout the United States. To determine whether or not, researchers looked at the degrees of adaptive tests – interviews that evaluate the skills of children, communications and daily living – contrary to the degrees of intelligence, which explain the mental disability.
“There are many children with autism who have intelligence degrees that will introduce them to being suffering from mental disability, but their adaptive degrees are higher,” said Mourin Durkin, a professor of population science at Wisconsin Madison University.
David Mandel, professor of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania, who did not participate in the analysis, said the adaptive degrees are designed to capture severe cases such as those described by Kennedy. He said that in comparison with the degrees of intelligence, they provide a better picture of how children with autism work in real life, such as whether they can talk to others, wear themselves or use the bathroom alone.
According to the analysis, 1.2 of 1,000 children suffer from autism with moderate or large weakness in 2016, compared to 1.5 out of 1,000 in 2000. In contrast, mild cases increased by 139 % during that period – from 3.1 from 1000 to 7.3 out of 1000.
“The increase in children with severe weakness. It will be really good for HHS current secretary,” said Marian Barton, the clinical professor of psychological science at Connecticut University, who was not involved in the research.
The Ministry of Health and Humanitarian Services did not respond to the request for comment.
Durkin said that one of the potential explanations for the high moderate cases is that doctors have improved the identification of mild symptoms. Development checks It became more common during the study periodThe American Academy of Pediatrics began recommending comprehensive offers specifically for autism in 2006.
Diagnostic criteria for autism also changed in 2013 to include more moderate cases, such as the case previously known as Asperger’s.
Mandel said: “We are witnessing the exceptional expansion of diagnostic standards to include people who have never benefited autistic standards 50 years ago,” Mandel said.
Since the analysis depends on health records and schools instead of personal diagnoses, it is possible that some children with mild symptoms who are not with autism at all.
“When you look at this group, we may be completely confident in the diagnosis, you do not see an increase in spread,” he said.
Kennedy has criticized this theory, indicating that only “small fragments” of increased cases are due to the increase in diagnoses.
“I bought the media in this industry, these myths that we see more autism because we notice it more,” Tell the Fox News Hannite host This month.
Instead, Kennedy said without evidence that the environmental poison is leading the cases, and the scientists of the Center for Disease Control to determine a catalyst by September – Achievement External researchers say it is unrealistic Unless CDC already had a pre -defined conclusion.
Kolevzon said that something in the environment could exacerbate the basic genetic risks of autism, but current research has not indicated any of the guilty yet.
He said: “We will not discover a kind of extensive environmental factors that explain the increase in spread.”
This article was originally published on NBCNEWS.com
