Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Search research articles

Related Experiment Videos

Autism: not an extremely rare disorder.

C Gillberg¹, L Wing

¹Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Göteborg, Sweden.

Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica

|July 17, 1999

Summary

Autism prevalence has significantly increased over time, with later studies showing rates around 1 in 1000 children compared to earlier findings. This suggests autism is more common than previously thought.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

Regulatory Problems in Infancy: Prevalence and Association With Early Neurodevelopmental and Medical Conditions in Toddlers.

Acta paediatrica (Oslo, Norway : 1992)·2025

Same author

22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome: Cognitive, Visuomotor, and Adaptive Functioning Followed Longitudinally.

Brain and behavior·2025

Same author

Behaviour of simple thymic cysts over time; is surveillance required?

Clinical radiology·2024

Same author

Cognitive functioning in adult psychiatric patients with and without attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

Brain and behavior·2024

Same author

Children born to parents with mild intellectual disability: Register-based follow-up of psychiatric and neurodevelopmental diagnoses and out-of-home placements.

Acta paediatrica (Oslo, Norway : 1992)·2024

Same author

Long-term medication for ADHD (LMA) trial: 2-year prospective observational study in children and adolescents. Core symptoms, daily functioning, and comorbidity outcomes.

European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience·2024

Area of Science:

Pediatric neurology
Developmental psychology
Epidemiology

Background:

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnosis and understanding have evolved.
Previous estimates of autism prevalence may not reflect current understanding.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate trends in autism prevalence over time.
To determine if there has been a recent increase in autism diagnosis.

Main Methods:

Systematic review of English-language studies on autism prevalence.
Inclusion of 20 studies published between 1966 and 1997.
Analysis of studies based on birth year cohorts and geographical location (US vs. non-US).

Main Results:

Early studies reported autism prevalence below 0.5 per 1000 children.
Later studies indicated a mean prevalence of approximately 1 per 1000 children.
A significant annual increase in prevalence of 3.8% was observed in non-US studies for children born after 1970.

Conclusions:

Autism is diagnosed more frequently than previously recognized.
The study highlights a substantial rise in reported autism rates.
Methodological differences and diagnostic criteria likely contribute to observed prevalence variations.

Related Experiment Videos