Aspies For Freedom

Autism rates in Olmsted County, Minnesota, have increased dramatically since the late 1970s, but evidence suggests that better diagnosis - not childhood vaccination - is responsible.

The Minnesota county is in many ways a medical researcher's paradise. It is relatively isolated, so almost all medical care is provided by the Mayo Clinic or cousin institutions. The medical records of these affiliated hospitals can provide a relatively complete walk through time.

Writing in the January issue of the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, scientists reported that autism rates soared from 5.5 per 100,000 children from 1980 to 1983 to 44.9 from 1995 to 1997. However, they said, the increase did not correspond to the introduction of the MMR vaccine or the preservative thimerosal in vaccines.

Instead, they wrote in the journal, "the timing of the change in autism incidence in Olmsted County is coincident with the introduction of broader diagnostic criteria, increased availability of education services and increased awareness of autism."
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/newssentinel/10609701.htm

When the media talks about skyrocketing epidemics of autism, are they including us aspies and other ASDs in these statistics, or just 'real' autism?  If so, I agree that the rising numbers of autism diagnoses can only be attributed to increased diagnoses.  Even twenty years ago, most people would pass aspies off as loners and weirdos with no pyschological 'condition'.

It includes all ASD's when they formulate the figures.

Yeah. I heard about this.

It makes sense to me because it's only been in the last 12 or so years that Asperger's writings were translated into English. The rates of people diagnosed with high-functioning autism would have soared since those writings became widely disseminated within Western countries in particular.