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Prevalence and the Controversy

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International Handbook of Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorders

Part of the book series: Autism and Child Psychopathology Series ((ACPS))

Abstract

Determining the prevalence of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) and monitoring it over time is important to ensure the training of ASD diagnosticians, to improve access to necessary interventions, and to understand causal mechanisms of ASDs. However, since an ASD is a behaviorally defined disorder, determining its prevalence is more difficult than for a disorder where clear biological markers exist. The symptoms of ASD vary in severity and may present differently in children with a mixture of cognitive abilities (King & Bearman, 2009). Furthermore, how the data are gathered, analyzed, and interpreted impacts the conclusions made regarding the prevalence of ASD (Fombonne, Quirke, & Hagen, 2010). As a result, there is controversy surrounding the prevalence of ASD, in particular, whether the recent rise in reports of the disorder are due to a true increase in incidence or whether there are other confounding factors that could be impacting the reports.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada, H3A 1B1

    Colin Andrew Campbell & Lisa Madden

  2. Department of Psychology, Loyola College in Maryland, Baltimore, MD, 21210, USA

    Sahar Davarya

  3. Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Birkbeck, University of London, London, WC1E 7HX, UK

    Mayada Elsabbagh

  4. Department of Psychiatry, Montreal Children’s Hospital, Montreal, QC, Canada, H3Z 1P2

    Eric Fombonne

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  1. Colin Andrew Campbell
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  2. Sahar Davarya
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  3. Mayada Elsabbagh
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  4. Lisa Madden
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  5. Eric Fombonne
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Correspondence to Eric Fombonne .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, 70803, Louisiana, USA

    Johnny L. Matson

  2. City University of New York, Department of Psychology, Queens College, Flushing, 11367, New York, USA

    Peter Sturmey

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Campbell, C.A., Davarya, S., Elsabbagh, M., Madden, L., Fombonne, E. (2011). Prevalence and the Controversy. In: Matson, J., Sturmey, P. (eds) International Handbook of Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorders. Autism and Child Psychopathology Series. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-8065-6_3

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