A Positive Association found between Autism Prevalence & Childhood Vaccination uptake

[Yeddi]

Is 1.7% significant when diagnosis on the spectrum is so subjective? How could they track variations in diagnosis? Did you read my link above?

Actually it's not as subjective as you may think. There have been a number of studies that have found that the same people will be diagnosed as having a PPD by multiple professionals. I.E. There was one study where they got 15 professionals to assess 200 people, ten of which has an ASD. All of the 15 professionals independently identified the exact same ten people as having ASD. What was subjective, however, was where on the spectrum these people with ASD were - as in whether they were given an Autism, Aspergers or PPD-NOS diagnosis varied by 40%. The point is however, they were all identified as having ASD, it was simply which stroke of the same brush they were painted with. And soon this subjectivity in what specific label to give within the spectrum will be closed up. As of July asperger's and PPD-NOS will no longer exist, they will all simply be ASD. I think this is great, as it will solve a lot of the misconceptions that are out there by those without much understanding of the nuances of ASD's, particularly with when it comes to girls who are often put into a PPD-NOS or asperger's box because they don't fit the male-based diagnostic criteria of typical autism, although they have exactly the same issues, they just show them in a different way, or can hide them better.

[RockinSAHD]

As of July asperger's and PPD-NOS will no longer exist,

Thats really interesting, I know that there was some controversy over some PPD's vs autism diagnosis. It will make things clearer but do you think the causes like will be the same for the new diagnosis of autism? (considering the article on autism you posted which said they thought they were close to finding a specific cause for autism)