• Montreal_Metro@lemmy.ca
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    9 months ago

    Is there really an increase in autism or increase in awareness of neurodivergent/autistic people? The increase in diagnosis doesn’t necessarily mean there’s an anctual increase of cases. You can’t measure anything if you don’t look for it in the first place.

    • a_jeering_serpent@sopuli.xyz
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      9 months ago

      This is a really important point. Diagnoses go up with each revision of the DSM (at least in the US, as it’s put out by the American Psychiatric Association) because the authors are intentionally making the criteria more expansive.

      To be clear this is policy and guidance playing catch up with reality, and it still hasn’t caught all the way up.

      Be wary of anyone conflating increases in rates of diagnoses with rates of occurrence, anybody talking about changes in rates of autism diagnoses that fails to speak to this is either being disingenuous or are themselves the victims of others disingenuity.

      It’s like putting down mousetraps and then being surprised to find mice in them. The mousetraps don’t increase the number of mice (ideally they decrease them!) but they can change your perception of how many mice there are by increasing opportunities for exposure.

    • Null User Object@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Is there really an increase in autism or increase in awareness of neurodivergent/autistic people?

      That’s exactly what the person you’re replying to meant by…

      “increase” of cases (not just diagnosis).

    • aceshigh@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Not to mention if you read how people who lived before modern medicine were described, you can guess if they were autistic or add. Not to mention the ones who were very low functioning were a secret kept at home or institutionalized.