Eine neue Studie mit fast 10.000 Zwillingen aus Schweden zeigt, dass steigende Autismus- und ADHS-Diagnosen nicht mit einer Zunahme der Symptome einhergehen.

I’ve linked to the news release in the post above. In this comment, for those interested, here’s the link to the peer reviewed journal article:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165178125002616

From the linked article:

**Rising autism and ADHD diagnoses not matched by an increase in symptoms**

A new study examining nine consecutive birth years in **Sweden** indicates that the dramatic rise in clinical diagnoses of autism spectrum disorder is not accompanied by an increase in autism-related symptoms in the population. The research, published in the journal Psychiatry Research, also found that while parent-reported symptoms of ADHD remained stable in boys, there was a small but statistically significant increase in symptoms among girls.

To conduct their analysis, the researchers utilized data from a large, ongoing project called the Child and Adolescent Twin Study in Sweden. This study follows twins born in Sweden to learn more about mental and physical health. For this specific investigation, researchers focused on information collected from the parents of **nearly 10,000 twins** born between 1993 and 2001.

The analysis showed no increase in the average level of parent-reported autism symptoms among 18-year-olds across the nine-year span. This stability was observed for both boys and girls. Similarly, when the researchers examined the proportion of individuals with the highest symptom scores, defined as those in the top five percent, they found no statistically significant change over time. This suggests that the prevalence of autism-related traits in the young adult population remained constant during this period.

The results for ADHD presented a more nuanced picture. Among boys, the data indicated that parent-reported ADHD symptoms were stable. There was no significant change in either the average symptom scores or in the percentage of boys scoring in the top 10 percent. For girls, however, the study identified a small but statistically detectable increase in ADHD symptoms over the nine birth years. This trend was apparent in both the average symptom scores and in the proportion of girls who scored in the top 10 percent for ADHD traits.

Despite being statistically significant, the researchers note that the magnitude of this increase in girls was small. The year of birth explained only a very small fraction of the variation in ADHD symptom scores. The results suggest that while there may be a slight upward trend in certain ADHD symptoms among adolescent girls, it is not nearly large enough to account for the substantial increase in clinical ADHD diagnoses reported in this group. The study provides evidence that the steep rise in both autism and ADHD diagnoses is likely influenced by factors other than a simple increase in the symptoms themselves.

Is this essentially saying that ADHD and autism has just gotten easier to spot/diagnose, rather than an increase in incidence? I feel as if that is the case of many many illnesses/disorders.

Trying to work out what it means by a change of symptoms, in relation to increasing numbers of people with the conditions.