Autism Rate Rises in US, May Begin In Utero

by
in science on (#3H4)
story imageAn abstract of a study released by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that the study's "2010 [Autism Spectrum Disorder] prevalence estimate of 14.7 per 1,000 (95% CI = 14.3-15.1), or one in 68 children aged 8 years, was 29% higher than the preceding estimate of 11.3 per 1,000 (95% CI = 11.0-11.7), or one in 88 children aged 8 years in 2008." Of the sites surveyed, four counties in New Jersey had the highest prevalence estimate, with 21.9 per 1,000 (95% CI = 20.4-23.6).

National Public Radio quotes CDC experts that "skyrocketing estimates don't necessarily mean that kids are more likely to have autism now than they were 10 years ago."
"It may be that we're getting better at identifying autism," says , director of the CDC's National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities.
Researchers say intervention in early childhood may help the developing brain compensate by rewiring to work around the trouble spots.
Another abstract of a "small, explorative study" from The New England Journal of Medicine describes Patches of Disorganization in the Neocortex of Children with Autism and suggests "a probable dysregulation of layer formation and layer-specific neuronal differentiation at prenatal developmental stages." CBS News demystifies the study as "brain abnormalities may begin in utero."

Cross-submitted by the author at Soylent News.
Reply 16 comments

So, it's not the vaccines? (Score: 4, Funny)

by fishybell@pipedot.org on 2014-03-28 19:27 (#VD)

The rate of vaccination declines and the rate of ASD increases? Blasphemy! Anecdotal evidence clearly shows that the opposite should be happening!

Off Topic (Score: 3, Interesting)

by dotdotdot@pipedot.org on 2014-03-28 20:04 (#VE)

Cross-submitted by the author at Soylent News.


I "cross-submitted" a story yesterday but then wondered if that was appropriate. Since many people visit both sites, would it just be seen as a duplicate? Would people comment on both stories?

What is the best way to support both sites?

Re: Off Topic (Score: 3, Interesting)

by sleazyridr@pipedot.org on 2014-03-28 20:23 (#VF)

Both sites are covering the same kind of news, so I'd imagine there'd be a lot of overlap between the stories reported on each site. Ideally the two communities would diverge slightly so we could get two different angles on the issue, but I'm not sure how likely that is.

Re: Off Topic (Score: 3, Informative)

by kerrany@pipedot.org on 2014-03-28 20:25 (#VG)

Post. Pipe. Moderate.

That's pretty much it. The community's not going to build itself, on either site - saying something, even if it's offtopic, is helping out. Heck, troll. Okay, don't go quite that far. ;)

I'm guilty of abandoning all but the last lately. I blame daylight savings time. That excuse should last till autumn, right?

Re: Off Topic (Score: 3, Informative)

by hyper@pipedot.org on 2014-03-28 21:03 (#VJ)

Good luck finding a decent topic which is only submitted on one site.
So, submit on them all and hope for good comments

Re: Off Topic (Score: 4, Informative)

by zafiro17@pipedot.org on 2014-03-28 22:46 (#VN)

I was the editor for this article, and I asked Bryan the same question: is it cool to post articles already posted elsewhere? His response was that the poster has done so before, and it was fine with Bryan (so it's okay with me).

I personally don't want much overlap between the sites, for two reasons:
1) I don't want anyone to think the two sites are poaching each other's articles, and
2) Different articles at each site means a reader gets more choice and more interesting things to read, which is good.

That said, I think I agree with Bryan here: the submitter posted at both sites deliberately, and I thought it would be rude not to post an interesting article someone had taken the time and energy to submit.

This question might become more academic at some point, as different communities evolve around both sites. I'm active on Usenet's comp.misc too, which frankly grapples with the same issue. There is bound to be a bit of overlap and cross-fertilization, but provided we make an effort, it won't necessarily become a problem.

Interesting article, by the way. I know a teacher of autistic kids, and it's clear we're just scratching the surface here with regard to our understanding of autism.

Re: Off Topic (Score: 3, Insightful)

by scott@pipedot.org on 2014-03-29 01:32 (#VQ)

Thanks for publishing it. I'd like to see Pipedot evolve a different mission, since both Soylent News and Pipedot are basically trying to do the same thing, and the audience seems to be with Soylent by a significant share. Maybe Pipedot could be a more intelligent version of Reddit, without the pr0n?

Re: Off Topic (Score: 4, Funny)

by chromas@pipedot.org on 2014-03-29 21:12 (#VX)

Maybe Pipedot could be a more intelligent version of Reddit, with out the pr0n?
That's better.

Re: Off Topic (Score: 2, Interesting)

by zafiro17@pipedot.org on 2014-03-30 18:58 (#W0)

Frankly, there's enough pr0n elsewhere it's not an issue, but you were probably joking. I could use an improvement on Reddit for technology and computer stuff, though. The Reddit system seems to favor shitty word play and pun fights, and the comments quickly degenerate into banal, four-word one liners based on a shared lexicon ("you gorgeous bastard," etc.). I'm done with Slash, and the drama at Soy has cheapened the site, for the moment.

The site's 'flavor' will probably evolve as a function of what kind of articles people enjoy posting and others enjoy commenting on. Post stuff, and let's see what happens. What if suddenly a team of astrophysicists decides to camp out here and suddenly all the articles are about astrophysics? Pipedot becomes the world's best tech site for discussion of astrophysics. Just sayin'.

Re: Off Topic (Score: 1)

by axsdenied@pipedot.org on 2014-03-29 02:16 (#VR)

Most of people read both sites but the comments will be different.
I think cross-submission is OK as long as it is marked as such (like this one was). Saves us reading the summary twice.

A different theory (Score: 0)

by Anonymous Coward on 2014-03-28 22:31 (#VM)

How about that we are now correctly identifying autism and that the numbers of people with autism has not changed. This would mean that autism is not on the increase, just our ability to detect it.

Special note: I work with a borderline autistic person. He was not diagnosed until well into his 40's.

Re: A different theory (Score: 1)

by axsdenied@pipedot.org on 2014-03-29 04:37 (#VS)

I don't think anybody can claim that Autism is not on the increase or decrease, or even being steady.

We know that rate of Autism is going up and at the same time our diagnosis is improving. While linked, there is no evidence that the two are moving at the same rate.

articles aren't really what I hoped for (Score: 2, Interesting)

by hombre@pipedot.org on 2014-03-29 08:01 (#VV)

Despite all the crap that's happened over at The Other Site, it stayed my homepage for 15 years. I like the breadth of stories. Even if they're dupes and "old" news (a few days to a few weeks) I didn't really care because I wasn't going to scour those sources and find those articles on my own. I left when the boycott started and have been back maybe 3-4 times out of morbid curiosity to see if the number of comments have decreased. I don't even read the headlines there, let alone dive in to read comments. Instead, I jumped on the SN and |. bandwagon. I certainly appreciate what each is trying to do and wish them success, but they're both a little disappointing TO ME because the style of stories is just different. It seems it's more News For Nerds, but it was the Stuff That Matters that I cared about.

I know, get off my ass and start submitting the kinds of stories I want to see. No. I have enough on my plate that some days I barely have time to read the newspaper (which is what these sites are for me). So that's my grouse and I won't mention it again, since I'm not really willing to do anything about it. Sorry.

Re: articles aren't really what I hoped for (Score: 3, Insightful)

by axsdenied@pipedot.org on 2014-03-29 12:40 (#VW)

Keep in mind that SN and |. are still quite new and still searching for the direction. Things may improve or may get worse.

One of the problems I see is that people try to avoid cross-posting stories. Two times I decided not to post a story as I was not sure if people will found it interesting and also because it has appeared on /.

I personally think that we need more stories covering a wider range of topics as everybody can pick and chose what to read.

I liked your comment as, if people listen, it may have a positive effect on the stories. I also would like to see more "Stuff that matters".

However, if you look at the bottom of the page:
Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant.
:-)

Re: articles aren't really what I hoped for (Score: 1)

by hombre@pipedot.org on 2014-03-30 03:12 (#VY)

Yeah, but the |. tagline is a not-so-thinly-veiled reference to the other one. I take both Pipe and Soy to be competing with Them and providing the same sort of news coverage. Just without the asshatery. That's just my take on it. YMMV

I think things will get better and I would hope that people would post and not worry about cross-posting stories.