More about autism,
The 1980s is when the diagnosis of autism (only for infants that met the criteria) was added to the DSM, prior to that, there was no official diagnosis of autism.
In the following years (including recent years), the official criteria for autism diagnosis has been dramatically expanded, all of this accounts to an ‘increase’ in autism diagnosis.
Furthermore, parental and provider education has increased dramatically which also resulted in more diagnosis in autism.
For one to not acknowledge and appreciate these facts and to use these increases that correlate to the changes to the official autism criteria, is dishonest and furthering an agenda on these unfortunate individuals.
While there may have been increases that are greater than the changes in diagnosis and education regarding the topic, it is not nearly as dramatic and like other hereditary disorders, they increase.
Blaming something that is clearly not the cause of the autism, is distracting from the true causes and research into managing these patients.