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> The increasing rates of Autism now are most likely the result of increasingly advanced maternal age for pregnancies Wiki seems to say it's either even split

> The increasing rates of Autism now are most likely the result of increasingly advanced maternal age for pregnancies Wiki seems to say it's either even split between parents, or leans paternal: > It is not known whether mutations that arise spontaneously in autism and other neuropsychiatric disorders come mainly from the mother or the father, or whether the mutations are associated with parental age.[74] However, recent studies have identified advancing paternal age as a significant indicator for ASD. There's also the other factors: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemiology_of_autism#Causing_factors https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemiology_of_autism#Causing... But as another mentioned, the increased awareness and access to medical professionals could also explain an upward trend in diagnosis.

schwartzworld 6y ago
> the increased awareness and access to medical professionals could also explain an upward trend in diagnosis. I don't see how any other hypothesis can even be considered until this is controlled for. How many people diagnosed as autistic today would have, had they lived in the past, been considered as having mental illness or intellectual disability? Would those who are high-functioning even be diagnosed as having anything at all, or just thought of as eccentric or a little touched?
- h0l0cube 6y ago
  What bothers me more is that people on this forum, which is most likely over-represented by the broad autism phenotype, and so quick to 'other' autism. Might not even have dawned on them that they might be talking a little about themselves.
  - schwartzworld 6y ago
    Fair point.