MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell: "Autism affects some 70 million people across the globe."

[proverbialwisdom]

Wrights Discuss Vatican Conference on Andrea Mitchell
Published on Nov 20, 2014

What a staggering statistic. The latest figure I'd heard was from Dr. Tom Insel when he testified during a Congressional hearing last March that at least a million people in the United States are affected by autism, the vast majority under 18.

https://twitter.com/TACAfoundation/status/468790197870542848

TACA ?@TACAfoundation May 20



Committee on Oversight & Government Reform had an #autism hearing... recording starts at 26 mins.
FULL VIDEO embedded in tweet.

START @ ~01:18:25

"I THINK IT'S REALLY HELPFUL TO PUT ALL OF THIS IN SOME CONTEXT, AND THE REASON WHY I KEEP HARPING ON THIS BEING THE WRONG RABBIT GOING DOWN THE WRONG HOLE IS THAT WHEN YOU COMPARE AUTISM TO AIDS, IT'S REALLY QUITE EXTRAORDINARY.

SO AS YOU SAID, CHAIRMAN MICA, $160M IS BEING SPENT IN 2012, IT'S A LITTLE BIT MORE THAN THAT, BUT THAT'S BASICALLY THE AUTISM FIGURE, AND YOU ALSO, BOTH OF YOU, CITED THE ENORMOUS PUBLIC HEALTH COST AND ECONOMIC COST.

AIDS AFFECTS ABOUT A MILLION PEOPLE IN THE UNITED STATES. DO YOU WANT TO GUESS WHAT THE AIDS BUDGET IS FOR RESEARCH AT THE NIH?

IT'S 3 BILLION DOLLARS.

WE'RE TALKING ABOUT 160 MILLION DOLLARS FOR A DISORDER (AUTISM) THAT AFFECTS AT LEAST AS MANY CHILDREN AS ARE AFFECTED BY, AS ARE AFFECTED WITH AIDS THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE COUNTRY."

http://www.ageofautism.com/2013/03/dr-tom-insel-on-autism-if-there-is-a-true-increase-if.html

...Then in 2010, Insel spoke for an hour and a half at the National Institutes of Health (link moved). Insel made the stunning statement, "Eighty percent of the people with a diagnosis of autism [in the U.S.] are under the age of eighteen."

In addition, Insel said, "We have responded to this as if it's a crisis. We see this as an enormous public health challenge. If you look at those numbers, the increase and recognize how many of those kids will become adults, we ...also need to be thinking about how we prepare the nation for a million people who may need significant amounts of services as they are no longer cared for by their parents or as their parents are no longer around."

[KT2000]

1. since most are under 18

it is considered someone else's problem. Just wait until they are adults. That is what no one is planning for.

[De Leonist]

5. Unfortunately that is too true.

There are many adults on the spectrum who aren't stupid, lazy, or slow. But the unemployment rate for even those of us diagnosed with the now defunct Asperger's Syndrome is very high. One of the biggest reasons for this aside from the overall state of the economy is that People on the Spectrum can have huge deficits in most of the basic social skills that normal people take for granted every day. Yes many of us can learn these skills intellectually but that only helps so much.

If you can't read the person interviewing you like the average person can than the difficulty of even just getting your foot in the door at even a job at a retail store can be rather high.

It's only been within the last 5 or so years that this one issue facing the Autistic Community has actually been addressed in any meaningful way.

[KT2000]

6. Asperger's Syndromediagnosis is defunct?

I was not aware of that. Can you fill me in on what that means or what happened? Thanks.

[De Leonist]

7. As I understand it

They've removed Asperger's Syndrome in the New DSM-V. From what I've read it's because they no longer view people with that Diagnosis to be separate from those diagnosed with High Functioning Autism as they now use the general label Autism Spectrum Disorder.

It doesn't mean that people given that diagnosis aren't considered Autistic anymore. It just means that they've come to see Autism as a disorder with an incredibly wide and varied spectrum.

That's as bout as much as I can tell you at the moment. Forgotten a lot of the details.

If you google it you should be able find out more. As you might imagine it caused a small kerfluffle so there is no shortage of online information

[Douglas Carpenter]

8. as I understand under the DSM-5 - they simply use the broad phrase ASD(Autism Spectrum Disorder)

Last edited Sun Nov 23, 2014, 09:22 AM - Edit history (2)

severity scale - levels 0-3

level 0:Requiring no support / Level 1 Mild - Requiring Support/ Level 2 Moderate Requiring Substantial Support

Level 3 Severe - 3/Requiring very substantial support

There is a fairly detailed chart here - from psychiatry.org:

CLINICIAN-RATED SEVERITY OF
AUTISM SPECTRUM AND SOCIAL COMMUNICATION DISORDERS

Mild
Requiring support
(i.e., Without supports in place, deficits in social communication cause noticeable impairments. Has difficulty initiating social interactions and demonstrates clear examples of atypical or unsuccessful responses to social overtures of others. May appear to have decreased interest in social interactions.)

Moderate
Requiring SUBSTANTIAL support
(i.e., Marked deficits in verbal and nonverbal social communication skills; social impairments apparent even with supports in place; limited initiation of social interactions and reduced or abnormal response to social overtures from others.)

Severe
Requiring VERY SUBSTANTIAL support
(i.e., Severe deficits in verbal and nonverbal social communication skills cause severe impairments in functioning; very limited initiation of social interactions and minimal response to social overtures from others.)
RESTRICTED INTERESTS and REPETITIVE BEHAVIORS:
Rate the level of interference in functioning and support required as a result of RESTRICTED INTERESTS and REPETITIVE BEHAVIORS for this individual.

None

Mild
Requiring support
(i.e., Rituals and repetitive behaviors [RRBs] cause significant interference with functioning in one or more contexts. Resists attempts by others to interrupt RRBs or to be redirected from fixated interest.)

Moderate
Requiring SUBSTANTIAL support
(i.e., RRBs and/or preoccupations and/or fixated interests appear frequently enough to be obvious to the casual observer and interfere with functioning in a variety of contexts. Distress or frustration is apparent when RRBs are interrupted; difficult to redirect from fixated interest.)

Severe
Requiring VERY SUBSTANTIAL support
(i.e., Preoccupations, fixed rituals and/or repetitive behaviors markedly interfere with functioning in all spheres. Marked distress when rituals or routines are interrupted; very difficult to redirect from fixated interest or returns to it quickly.)

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&sqi=2&ved=0CCkQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.psychiatry.org%2FFile%2520Library%2FPractice%2FDSM%2FDSM-5%2FClinicianRatedSeverityOfAutismSpectrumAndSocialCommunicationDisorders.pdf&ei=YrxxVIzVONS1oQS-p4DIAQ&usg=AFQjCNG8tm7imUhaLlmY5UVt8YNr-N2YNw&sig2=Yuql_5qyhgWl5pWcZFwyGw&bvm=bv.80185997,d.cGU


I suppose most people who were previously diagnosed or would have been diagnosed with Asperger's would now be diagnosed with ASD Severity Scale 1.

BTW: are you familiar with this discussion forum?:

http://www.wrongplanet.net/forums/

They just redid their forum style and layout in the past 24 hours.

[KT2000]

10. thank you

I didn't know about this but will look it up.

[De Leonist]

2. As someone on the Spectrum myself....

I feel somewhat obliged (not that I speak for anyone else on the spectrum) to state that many of us are critical of Autism Speaks and how they seem to dominate the media landscape in the dialogue surrounding us.

For those who might be interested in what people who have the actual diagnosis say about the issues surrounding them you might want to click on this link. https://www.youtube.com/user/autselfadvocacyntwk/videos

[Douglas Carpenter]

9. the organization "Autism Speaks" is certainly NOT very popular with adults on Spectrum

[Spitfire of ATJ]

3. I wonder if humans have ALWAYS had this or if it's new.

[proverbialwisdom]

11. Seriously?

How Recent Is Autism?

So recent that the late great director Mike Nichols, born 11.6.31, was just a few weeks younger than Vivian Murdock, oldest child in the first case study on autism, born 9.13.31. Autism is man-made.

Also indirectly answered here:

http://www.nytimes.com/times-insider/2014/10/28/building-a-story-on-autisms-impact-on-dental-care/
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/10/20/for-children-with-autism-opening-a-door-to-dental-care/

Pediatric dentists trained in the early 80's were taught autism prevalence was 1 in 10,000.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

12. According to Wikipedia...

The number of people diagnosed with autism has been increasing dramatically since the 1980s, partly due to changes in diagnostic practice and government-subsidized financial incentives for named diagnoses; the question of whether actual prevalence has increased is unresolved.

[proverbialwisdom]

13. I'd highlight the phrase "partly due" in your excerpt, however, IACC 2014 trumps Wikipedia.

Previously posted: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10592519

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Previously posted: http://www.democraticunderground.com/101697200

http://www.njjewishnews.com/article/18974/timely-help-for-those-on-autism-spectrum#.UnO03akTub8

Timely help for those on autism spectrum

by Sara Mendez
October 30, 2013

Autism spectrum disorders are a set of complex developmental disorders associated with the well-known challenges of social and communication difficulties.

Jewish Family Service of MetroWest’s entry into this arena, with its trained clinicians, is timely. According to a study released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2012, one in 49 children in New Jersey has an ASD, a rate of double the number of cases over the prior study in 2007." New Jersey records the second most prevalent rate among 14 states tested nationwide.

According to the study, 80 percent of these cases have been diagnosed as “severe.” The average age of diagnosis in New Jersey is just over three years. As a result of this troubling growth in diagnoses, multiple interventions and approaches to working with children diagnosed with ASD have been developed. Each child with ASD is unique, so intervention plans can be tailored to address such individual needs.

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COMMENTS:

Paul G. King
October 31, 2013
Regarding the NJ 1 in 49 rate, given the sex ratio (Male to female) reported, it is obvious that those children with lesser levels of damage are being disproprotionately missed.

Hopefully, because NJ is one of the states with 2 “independent” sources of diagnosed individuals with some overlap between the sets, the NJ publis health officials can be encouraged to perform the appropriate statistical adjustment for underascertainment and correct the 1 in 49 number for that under counting.

Were this to be done, it i likely that the underascertainment-corrected rate for children with an ASD diagnosis in NJ would probably be closer to 1 in 25 than it is to the reported raw records’ level of 1 in 49.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

14. It still doesn't answer if it's always been there or if it's something new...

Then there's the question of how many disparate things are now being called "autism" because that's where the funding is at.

That said, I could easily believe an environmental cause like the introduction of artificial sweeteners or Frankenfood causing an increase.

[proverbialwisdom]

15. Those are disingenuous talking points aimed at low information individuals. Disengaging. (nt)

[Spitfire of ATJ]

16. I am still wondering if what we call "autism" isn't a plethora of prior things now under one name.

[missingthebigdog]

4. Autism affects EVERYBODY!

It is not an exaggeration to say that it is a public health crisis. We simply do not have the health care infrastructure necessary to care for those who are more severe as they age.