Zero No Tsukaima Shota

Most autistic adults in England are undiagnosed as such

Source: Commission

EU: CORDIS: News: Most autistic adults in England are undiagnosed as such

Date: 05/05/2011]

Most autistic adults in England (UK) Receiving a diagnosis and completely ignore their condition, according to new European research.

Thanks to the study, published in the journal General Psychiatry, also found that autism is more common among men, people without a college education and beneficiaries of social housing programs.

The research, by scientists from the United Kingdom, based on data from an epidemiological study conducted in 2007 among the general public about autism in adulthood conducted by the same team that had two phases in which 618 people participated. None of the people who were discovered autism was aware of his condition and of course they were not diagnosed with autism or Asperger syndrome. Under

recommended limit of a score of 10 or higher on the scale of the Autism Diagnostic Observation (ADOS), 1% of the adult population had an autistic spectrum disorder. This figure coincides with current statistics on the prevalence of this disorder among children, also close to 1%, which means that the ratio of adults is greater than the child.

"It is worrying that none of the cases confirmed by rigorous diagnostic methods knew of his condition and had not received an official diagnosis," said Dr. Traolach Brugha, University of Leicester, author of the study.

However, he indicated that most of these cases were relatively mild and very few highs. "We know that severe autism, especially if accompanied by a dysfunction of learning presents far more likely to be discovered."

Although the study shows that there are people who are not diagnosed with the disorder, the authors stress that have found no evidence of a significant increase in the number of people who suffer, thus offsetting recent concerns about an "autism epidemic."

Since the proportion of autistic discovered is similar to what occurs in people 16 to 80 years, we can deduce that the number of people developing the condition has not changed much over the past eighty years. If increasing the proportion of autistic children, the percentage of these would be much lower among older people and highest among children and youth.

Dr. Traolach Brugha added: "Overall, our findings suggest that prevalence has not increased or decreased significantly over time. This gives rise to the interpretation that the detection methods applied in recent times children have changed from the old, that derive substantially lower rates. "

The study's authors explain that autism is caused by a number of factors genetic and environmental conditions have not changed, so changes in the proportion of diagnosed autistic point to an improvement in the diagnosis and detection of cases and not an environmental factor. The idea of \u200b\u200bthe "autism epidemic" may be based on a perception syndrome marked.

The lack of an association between autism and age is consistent with the theory that there has been no increase in the number of cases and the causes remain constant.

Due to the propensity of adults with autism to social exclusion, research on the diagnosis of the condition is essential to identify these neglected patients.

For more information see:

University of Leicester:

http://www2.le.ac.uk/