Autism: A Year in Review

From Huffington Post's Cara Santa Maria.

In the United States, we've seen a fifteen-fold increase in autism diagnoses over the past two decades. In fact, it's currently estimated that almost 1% of US children have an autism-spectrum disorder (ASD), while the rates in US adults are largely unknown. Autism is described in the DSM-IV, listed as a disorder usually first diagnosed in infancy, childhood, or adolescence. Autism is further categorized as a pervasive developmental disorder, falling within the autistism spectrum, along with Asperger's and PDD-NOS.