Study turns up 10 autism clusters in California

[Callaway]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100105/sc_nm/us_autism_clusters

I wonder if the clustering effect is just that better educated parents are more likely to pursue an autism diagnosis.

[El]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100105/sc_nm/us_autism_clusters

I wonder if the clustering effect is just that better educated parents are more likely to pursue an autism diagnosis.

I'd bet the tendency to give white middle-to-upper-class kids a more "desireable" disgnosis plays into it, too.  I know there have been studies showing a diagnostic racial bias.

Might also be an issue of community resources, community types (birds of a feather), and communication between people within the 'clusters.'

[Scrapheap]

Has anyone considered the possibility that Autism and Aspergers are more prevalent in Caucasians??

That could certianly be the case, if genetic links are ever proven.

[El]

Has anyone considered the possibility that Autism and Aspergers are more prevalent in Caucasians??

That could certianly be the case, if genetic links are ever proven.

That's possible as well, although I doubt that that accounts for 100% of diagnosing bias.

[Christopher McCandless]

Has anyone considered the possibility that Autism and Aspergers are more prevalent in Caucasians??

That could certianly be the case, if genetic links are ever proven.

Or social expectations are higher/ more difficult for someone with spectrum traits to meet. Or the opposite, leading to lots of people with spectrum traits to show up and have children. Social expectations are a big part of the explanation for ASD's, but of course fashion dictates that they largely be ignored. After all we cannot have an explanation of Autism which blames anyone.

[Scrapheap]

^

In English please?? 

[Christopher McCandless]

^

In English please?? 

Google "social expecations" and all will become clear.

[odeon]

"pockets of autism"?!

[Scrapheap]

^

In English please?? 

Google "social expecations" and all will become clear.

My point being that you were talking in vague scienciy language.

Well, no Screaming Eagle Shit that "Social Expectations" are part of a ASD DX. Part of the whole concept of mental disorders is that the behavior falls outside the norm of society, or humanity at large. There is a societal "average" that a person is measured against, and if they don't fit it, then they are usually DX'ed with something.

This, BTW is how religious people get out of being DX'ed with Delusional Disorder. 

[Christopher McCandless]

^

In English please?? 

Google "social expecations" and all will become clear.

My point being that you were talking in vague scienciy language.

Well, no Screaming Eagle Shit that "Social Expectations" are part of a ASD DX. Part of the whole concept of mental disorders is that the behavior falls outside the norm of society, or humanity at large. There is a societal "average" that a person is measured against, and if they don't fit it, then they are usually DX'ed with something.

This, BTW is how religious people get out of being DX'ed with Delusional Disorder. 

I wasn't being vague at all, instead I was trunctating some rather complicated ideas into a more concise way of expression things. The thing is that social expectations vary greatly with circumstances, so you would expect that to be indicated any kind of study of that sort. The second obvious thing is that social expectations have mushroomed in terms of complexity over the last 50 years, which would partly explain the massive rise in diagnosis.

Given though that Autism is around 90% genetic, you would think they would be trying to strip back all the societal stuff and figure out what is behind it in terms of biology, rather than continuing to define it relative to the wrong frame of reference. If you strip away the social expectations aspect, it also most likely will cease to be a developmental disorder.

[jman]

Has anyone considered the possibility that Autism and Aspergers are more prevalent in Caucasians??

That could certianly be the case, if genetic links are ever proven.

Or social expectations are higher/ more difficult for someone with spectrum traits to meet. Or the opposite, leading to lots of people with spectrum traits to show up and have children. Social expectations are a big part of the explanation for ASD's, but of course fashion dictates that they largely be ignored. After all we cannot have an explanation of Autism which blames anyone.

You know as much as you and me tend to disagree on things, every so often you'll say that sits well with me and makes perfect sense. I think you are spot on re: social expectations, but this is also true for a lot of mental disorders. This is also begs the question how many of those kids were diagnosed on the mild end of the spectrum?

[Christopher McCandless]

Has anyone considered the possibility that Autism and Aspergers are more prevalent in Caucasians??

That could certianly be the case, if genetic links are ever proven.

Or social expectations are higher/ more difficult for someone with spectrum traits to meet. Or the opposite, leading to lots of people with spectrum traits to show up and have children. Social expectations are a big part of the explanation for ASD's, but of course fashion dictates that they largely be ignored. After all we cannot have an explanation of Autism which blames anyone.

You know as much as you and me tend to disagree on things, every so often you'll say that sits well with me and makes perfect sense. I think you are spot on re: social expectations, but this is also true for a lot of mental disorders. This is also begs the question how many of those kids were diagnosed on the mild end of the spectrum?

I like to say something sensible now and then. It breaks up the monotony

The thing with ASD's is that unlike other mental disorders, they are defined in terms of social expectations, so they would be the best way of investigating them and proving results. I think reading the study might be interesting and we should see if this person has distinguished them in the results, at the minute I can't find them, although you can find the funding information by searching for "Environmental Factors in the Etiology of autism", they are getting serious amounts of money to do this research by looking at it.

Really its a mathematical biology problem for the most part, there is a lot of clever maths which would be very good for illustrating the social expectations effect. Maybe I could do it for a PhD, if I could find the right supervisor.

[Callaway]

I think it makes perfect sense that people on the broader autism spectrum have been tending to find one another and have children together.

[Parts]

"pockets of autism"?!

Yeah it's like pocket pool but not as fun

[renaeden]

"My child is naughty, let's get a diagnosis! Of some sort."