Why Increased Autism?

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I suspect that is largely a change in diagnosis criteria - I think the majority of ASD cases are cases of PDD/NOS, that not existed before 1988.

It will be interesting to compare the rate of new diagnosis of ASD before and after de DSM-5 (my bet - a strong reduction).

It may or may not be as complex as is thought.

I do not think autism was as prevalent in my parents generation but they were exposed to direct pesticides and other new chemicals in plastics, etc. It was prevalent, but undiagnosed in my generation and DDT spraying only stopped when I was about 8-9 maybe. But other pesticides and a whole slew of other chemicals came along in perfusion. It is very prevalent in my children's generation, just more diagnosed and perhaps somewhat more severe.

This is just my speculation I know. And you are right about single studies. But I fully expect the future will bare this out and reveal an increase in autism as result of chemical exposures.







One way to damage this theory would be to show that countries/places that did not use such chemicals show the same prevalence of autism as those that did.

DDT was banned in 1971, when I was 10.

Autism (Kanner) was a recognized entity, saddled with a poor prognosis,

To state this more clearly:

Autism always exsisted, and likely could be caused by different things, but was at a certain level.

Sometime in the 20th century, perhaps the 20's-60's essentially a mass poisoning took place via pesticides, plastics, perhaps heavy metals, etc.

This caused a significant jump in autism, in the children of those exposed.

New cases do not require new chemical exposure, because of the strong hereditary nature of autism, and it is to a degree now self sustaining.

Just thought I'd add this which turned up in study a few years back. Another significant pointer to environmental pollution/poisoning.

"Researchers found that children whose families lived within 1,000 feet from a freeway at birth ? about 10% of the children in the study ? were twice as likely to have autism as those who lived farther from a highway..."

http://healthland.time.com/2010/12/17/s ... tism-risk/

We're diagnosing it more these days. I don't believe in the vaccines lie.

I think the vaccines was a good thing to investigate, but what I have seen so far in studies does not bare out it being a cause of autism.

Were merely taking over the world that's all in about 100 years everyone will be autistic!

Many parents of autistic kids, are in the broader autistic phenotype. This can be diagnosed as PDD-NOS or even Asperger, if the person requires a formal diagnosis. In DSM 5, all this conditions are diagnosed as Autism Spectrum Disorder Level 1. The number of persons that require diagnosis are increased in last years. I think, this is one of the many causes of high incidence in ASD.

I think it's due to women ingesting drugs, both prescription and otherwise, before and during pregnancy.

There must be millions of epigenetic effects like that which we don't yet know about - the field is so new.