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J Autism Dev Disord (2017) 47:163171 DOI 10.1007/s10803-016-2942-y
ORIGINAL PAPER
http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1007/s10803-016-2942-y&domain=pdf
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Web End = Change inAutism Diagnoses Prior toand Following the Introduction ofDSM-5
CatherineA.Bent1 JosephineBarbaro1 CherylDissanayake1
Published online: 11 November 2016 Springer Science+Business Media New York 2016
Abstract Change over time in the age and number of children registered for autism-specic funding was examined, prior to and following introduction of the revised diagnostic criteria (the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disordersfth edition; DSM-5). De-identied data for 32,199 children aged under 7years between 2010 and 2015 was utilised. Fluctuations were evident in the frequency and age of diagnoses, with slight increases in age of diagnosis corresponding with increases in frequency of diagnoses. The incidence of autism increased from 2010 to 2013, and then plateaued to 2015. A signicant trend-relative reduction in the number of children registered to receive autism-specic funding was evident post 2013, suggesting the more stringent DSM-5 criteria may have curbed the trend of increasing diagnoses over time.
Keywords Autism spectrum disorder Aspergers disorder DSM-5 Diagnosis Incidence Age of diagnosis
Introduction
The eld of autism research has changed substantially since Kanner (1943) rst described 11 cases of infantile autism. A prominent change in the eld has been the increase in diagnoses over time; once considered a rare condition, recent prevalence estimates from Australia and internationally suggest that autism spectrum disorder (ASD) aects between 1 and 2.5 % of children (Christensen etal. 2016; Idring et al. 2014; Kim et al. 2011; Randall et al. 2016). Another notable shift has been the increased emphasis on early identication and diagnosis; brought about by research on the benets of early intervention for young children with ASD (e.g., Flanagan etal. 2012; Perry etal. 2013) and the established stability of early diagnoses (Barbaro and Dissanayake 2016; Daniels etal. 2011; Ozono et al. 2015). Access to autism specic intervention and funding services is largely dependent on a diagnosis of ASD, and changes to the diagnostic criteria may therefore have a substantial impact on access to services. The objective in this study was to examine change over time in the age and frequency of autism diagnoses in a large sample of children registered to receive autism specic funding, prior to and following the introduction of the revised...