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The prevalence puzzle: Autism counts

Nature volume 479, pages 22–24 (2011)Cite this article

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Shifting diagnoses and heightened awareness explain only part of the apparent rise in autism. Scientists are struggling to explain the rest.

When Leo Kanner first described autism in 1943, he based his observations on 11 children with severe communication problems, repetitive behaviours such as rocking and an acute lack of social interaction. The physician and psychiatrist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, predicted that there were probably many more cases than he or anyone else had noticed1. "These characteristics form a unique 'syndrome', not heretofore reported," he wrote, "which seems to be rare enough, yet is probably more frequent than is indicated by the paucity of observed cases."

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Authors
  1. Karen Weintraub
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Karen Weintraub is a freelance writer in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

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CDC Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network

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Weintraub, K. The prevalence puzzle: Autism counts. Nature 479, 22–24 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/479022a

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