"Changes in autism definition could reduce diagnoses; Proposed tighter criteria considered by researchers" by Benedict Carey | New York Times, January 20, 2012
NEW YORK - 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, education, and social services, a new analysis suggests.
The definition is under review by a special 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 DSM, as the manual is known, is the standard reference for mental disorders, driving research, treatment, and insurance decisions.
The study results, presented yesterday at a meeting of the Icelandic Medical Association, are still preliminary but 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’s syndrome have taken off since the early 1980s, to prevalence rates as high as 1 in 100 children in some places. Many researchers suspect that these numbers are inflated because of vagueness in the current criteria.
Specialists working on the new definition questioned the new estimate.
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