What’s driving the rise of autism diagnoses vs. what drives autism

FixersUK

VANCOUVER—Geneticist Wendy Chung took to the TED stage on Wednesday to discuss one of today’s most perplexing problems: the twenty-fold increase in autism diagnoses in children over the past three decades. What we know for certain (and what she made clear) is that vaccines are absolutely not to blame. There is no credible evidence to support the assertion that vaccination causes autism, and there is plenty of evidence to rule it out.

Autism diagnoses are certainly on the rise, though; one in 88 children will be diagnosed with autism this year. But the rise of diagnoses does not necessarily mean that there has been a rise in autism. In fact, Chung does not believe that there has been a massive increase in autism cases. “The vast majority of it is the increase in diagnoses,” Chung said. Medical professionals are now far better trained to detect and diagnose autism, so it's diagnosed more often.

At the same time, autism is not a single disorder. It's actually a spectrum of disorders, from the completely debilitating to milder cases that may only affect socialization or education.