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U.S. autism data project sparks uproar over ethics, privacy and intent

(www.washingtonpost.com)
254 points perihelions | 9 comments | 27 Apr 25 09:23 UTC | HN request time: 0.559s | source | bottom
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formerly_proven ◴[27 Apr 25 09:39 UTC] No.43810612[source]▶
The criteria for diagnosing ASD today are vastly different from those that would’ve resulted in an autism diagnosis shortly after the abolishment of lobotomy, it is hardly surprising the rate keeps going up as you widen the net.
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1. NomDePlum ◴[27 Apr 25 09:51 UTC] No.43810664[source]▶
What's the link between ASD and lobotomies?
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2. viraptor ◴[27 Apr 25 09:54 UTC] No.43810685[source]▶
Progress of understanding.
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3. cma ◴[27 Apr 25 09:57 UTC] No.43810700[source]▶
I think he's just trying to choose a point in time when mental healthcare was more primitive to go along with saying the diagnosis is more sophisticated now.

A main thing is that people with autism would just be classified as generally mentally disabled and the rise in autism is highly tied a drop in that general diagnosis. I don't think that covers 100% of the rise but does seem to make up the big majority.

U.S. special-education autism classification was created in 1994 and tied to a big rise in diagnosis.

https://news.wisc.edu/data-provides-misleading-picture-of-au...

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4. NomDePlum ◴[27 Apr 25 09:59 UTC] No.43810705[source]▶
Sorry, still not that clear to me.

Are you saying that there is no direct link but rather understanding of various areas increased due to the stopping of this practice?

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5. NomDePlum ◴[27 Apr 25 09:59 UTC] No.43810713[source]▶
Thanks. That helps.
6. ◴[27 Apr 25 10:19 UTC] No.43810805{3}[source]▶
7. viraptor ◴[27 Apr 25 10:22 UTC] No.43810818{3}[source]▶
We understood more about various conditions and treatments, so we stopped doing harmful things like lobotomies and refined the definitions on some conditions as needed. Those are not directly related though.
8. ang_cire ◴[27 Apr 25 10:40 UTC] No.43810903{3}[source]▶
> understanding of various areas increased due to the stopping of this practice

Yes, this absolutely. You can't study something after altering it.

The "treatments" for people with any kind of neurodivergence (real, or imagined) in the past were often interventions that destroyed enough of their brain or body to prevent them from exhibiting any neurodivergent symptoms (e.g. lobotomy, EST/ECT, teeth-pulling[1], etc).

[1]: https://www.amusingplanet.com/2019/01/henry-cotton-psychiatr...

9. tsimionescu ◴[27 Apr 25 10:47 UTC] No.43810931{3}[source]▶
There is no direct link, but the point is that an increasing trend in diagnosis of ASD is not surprising when the baseline is coming from a time when doctors thought cutting out parts of your brain to make you more calm was a good idea. Basically, we shouldn't look at numbers reported by doctors willing to perform lobotomies for depression as a reliable indicator of the incidence of ASD in the population at the time.