Guest guest Posted June 9, 2006 Report Share Posted June 9, 2006 Looks like there must be more misdiagnosing than previously thought. Since ASD is 'diagnosed' phenomenologically it would stand to reason that there would be some misdiagnosing as doctors only see a snapshot of our child in their office. Sadly, it must be more than expected. Hopefully this article isn't taken out of context by some and becomes cause for panic. There is a lot this article does not say, i.e. what interventions the children were receiving if any, etc., etc.... Autism diagnosis remains through early childhood Thu June 08, 2006 01:08 PM ET NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Most children diagnosed with autism at 2 years of age will still have that diagnosis at age 9, investigators report. In contrast, many young children first diagnosed with less severe conditions -- called pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) -- later have their diagnoses changed to autism. Dr. Lord, from the University of Michigan Autism and Communication Disorders Center in Ann Arbor, and her associates report that clinicians have been questioning the stability of these diagnoses. The researchers therefore followed 192 children referred for evaluation for possible autism before 36 months of age, plus 22 children with developmental delays between ages 13 and 35 months. At age 9, 172 of these children were available for reevaluation. According to their report in the Archives of General Psychiatry, the researchers found that at age 9, most of the changes in diagnosis were " associated with increasing certainty of classifications moving from ASD/PDD-NOS to autism. " More than half of those initially diagnosed with PDD-NOS later met the criteria for autism, Lord's team indicates. Conversely, only one of 84 children diagnosed with autism at age 2 years was found to not have the condition at 9 years of age. The researchers comment that, since more than half of those first diagnosed with PDD-NOS later were characterized as autistic, " health care professionals should be wary of telling parents that their young children do not have autism. " SOURCE: Archives of General Psychiatry, June 2006. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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