U.S. Rates of Autism, ADHD Continue to Rise: Report

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It would be nice to think that kids with labels will get help, but with budgets the way they are...My experience in Houston was that the school district pushed back on everything. Their goal was to get me take my child to private school.
For schools, a diagnosis is simply another problem. Teacher hate it becausee, as they coast to retirement, they can't be bothered to customize, and everyone hates a pushy parent who understands the equal opportunity in education part of the Civil Rights Act. You see, disabilites are covered under that as well, not just race.
By the way, Texas is a right to work state, so teacher unions have nothing to do with this.

Finness of TX 10:14AM May 23, 2011

Hmmm.... "Researchers used data from the 1997-2008 National Health Interview Surveys....The surveys asked parents of children aged 3 to 17 if their children had been diagnosed with ADHD, intellectual disability, cerebral palsy, autism, .... and/or other developmental delays."
So they didn't do any actual research, just spit out "data" from interviews? About what the parents, who are notoriously eager to turn every parenting challenge into a "disease," reported? And who made this diagnosis? A teacher? A school nurse? A fellow parent? The parent themselves?--who, of course, "know better" than any medical professional who might not be quite so certain of Mommy's "diagnosis." Can any of this be verified? There is no real "test" for these "diseases"--it's a very subjective evaluation of behavior
To top it off, a weird sort of bandwagon effect seems to have taken hold--parents seem positively *eager* to have their kids diagnosed with one or the other, and will actively "shop" for a diagnosis until they get one. They come up with their crackpot and totally discredited vaccine theories, and then they want to pump their kids full of even more drugs to solve their behavior issues. That way they're not the least bit responsible for either the problem or the solution.

aaa915 of NY 10:09AM May 23, 2011

I think it is very important to note that both the author and the experts cited only allowed two possible reasons for this increase; an actual increase or better reporting and diagnosis.
I would suggest a third reason. The willingness of professionals, in concert with the drug companies, to classify every child ( generally boys ) a behavior problem, when in fact, they are only being kids.
These "professionals" ( schools, psycologists, doctors, drug companies ) have created a whole industry for themselves and it obviously is in their interest to have as many customers as possible.

rob of NY 10:08AM May 23, 2011

Hispanic children also grow up in families where they are fed traditional diets more often that white, western-european, suburban children. The 'traditional' diet for white Americans is Big Macs, Pizza, KFC, Wonder Bread, Coke.. you get the picture. What if the medical community actively starts to look at what children are fed IN UTERO before they are born. Look at their mothers, look at the AGE of the mothers, look at the chemicals in the average home. I've been a housepainter for 30 years and in all that time I have only been in TWO homes where junk food, plastics and the other toxic residue of the consumerist, materialist 'American' way of life were not present.
The average home is chemically saturated to a horrifying degree.

foodandart of NH 10:02AM May 23, 2011

Eventually it will come out that we are poisoning ourselves with all the chemicals and hormones going into our livestock and crops. Not to mention the drugs pushed on us by marketing and the FDA's willingness to accept a bribe if large enough. We still eat aspartame (nutrasweet) ??? amazing...

jt rollin of TX 9:58AM May 23, 2011

The comment from jwhitemd is misinformed. Autism is a disorder that has certain distinct behavoirs. These behaviors can not be considered faulty behaviors. It is incredible that a person who puts "md" with his name can be that inaccurate.
The increase in the number of individuals diagnost with autism can not be explained by an increase in awareness. The sooner the media and the medical profession starts to understand that the sooner we can start to look for a cure.

Stephen Bradford of MD 9:54AM May 23, 2011

Is there any other industrialized nation that classifies 1 in every 6 of its children as disabled?
Maybe it's time we started thinking seriously about whether we're diagnosing conditions that aren't really there. These levels of infirmity are sure to leave many reasonable people skeptical.
If we end up convinced these rates are real, then maybe we'd better deal with the fact that our society has somehow found itself in a situation that reflects all kinds of health and social risks for our children: 40 percent of U.S. births are to unmarried women; unwanted or high-risk pregnancies are continued to term in the name of "respect for life"; a diagnostic label qualifies schoolchildren for expensive individual services that cripple education for their classmates; vast numbers of children are on powerful medications that the pharmaceutical industry has every reason to push; we continue to tolerate hypersexuality in the media but real backwardness everywhere else regarding responsible sexual behavior, contraception, abortion, and the public's legitimate interest in competent parenting.
No nation can afford this level of disability in its children.

Mary Ostrem, DrPH of MA 9:50AM May 23, 2011

I just stopped my clinical with two rotations left in my CT course. I don't want to work in this field. The technology moves so fast you can't even interact with the patient. Just dump them on the table, get a picture, throw them out and hurry please, because the hospital needs to make money to pay for the equipment. I burnt out in my Nuclear Cardiology Department because it became less about Medicine and all about the dollar the Doctor was getting. Same thing here. Label a child and you can make money selling drugs and the teacher or school or parent is not to blame for the child's behavior. No ADHD in Japan. Isn't that interesting.

sam smith of ID 9:46AM May 23, 2011

When I read this it was immediately apparent why.
"In other findings, boys were more likely to have a developmental disability than girls. Hispanic children were the least likely to be diagnosed with a number of disabilities, compared with white and black children."
"Children with public insurance, mainly Medicaid, were more likely to have disabilities than those on private insurance plans."
Disparities in mediacal insurance. Medicaid in particular was rather easy to understand this UNRELATED statistic. When you have Medicaid, if the physician is unable to come up with a diagnosis the insurance will not pay for the visit. The physician is forced to arrive at a subjective diagnosis right away or face not getting paid. If there is a diagnosis the continued treatment means continuing cash for the doctor's office. The parents are happy because their child is apparently receiving care and the doctor is happy to get paid. The discouraging percentage for the hispanic population is unfortunately due to two related facts: One-they are often not as well insured as others if they are middleclass and are under represented in upper-class (fewer in this population). Two- they are most likely subtracting the amount from these pre previous populations from the Medicaid population. This decreases the overall percentage to a very small number. When one looks at the percentages they are able to infer that they are under diagnosed (wrongfully).

Robert of OR 9:46AM May 23, 2011

Just a comment from an old Internist. This is another "imaginary" phenomenon, just like global warming, and second hand smoke. A mom takes a kid with school issues to the psychologist (social worker, shrink, etc). She wants a diagnosis, and will not tolerate even an "expert" telling her that she has a "bad kid" and needs to enforce discipline, and teach good study habits. So, more faulty behavior is rewarded with an "actual diagnosis" that will get her kid extra help, tutors, and special rules at school What a joke.

James of LA 9:39AM May 23, 2011