After my posts and podcasts on the increase in prevalence of autism diagnoses, but likely not autism, a new study shows how pernicious and ingrained the tendency to find more people to diagnose is. Published in Journal of the American Medical Association, the authors aimed to compare autism diagnoses among boys and girls. There is a wide disparity. Instead of wondering if maybe boys were being over-diagnosed with pretty normal behavior, the authors conclude that we need to diagnose and “treat” more girls for autism. These over-diagnosis tendencies are raising costs and disrupting lives and there needs to be an initiative to reduce them. (JAMA Article)
