Prague, Feb 23 (CTK) – The number of children suffering from autism has doubled in the Czech Republic in the past decade, daily Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD) writes yesterday, adding that one in 68 newborn babies were autistic last year, compared with one in 150 in 2007.
A sharp increase has been confirmed by child psychiatrists as well as experts from the National Institute for Autism that provides help, including early intervention, to autistic children and their families.
“A few years ago, our assistants focusing on autistic babies dealt with about ten families each, while now, each of them works with 50 families,” the institute director Magdalena Caslavska is quoted a saying.
Autistic people mostly require a strict order of affairs and they hysterically react to changes, but they often disrespect social rules themselves. Some combine autism with mental retardation, while others, mainly those with the Asperger syndrome, have an above-average intellect with brilliant abstract thinking and combination skills.
Doctors say the main factors contributing to the sharp increase are better diagnostics, a higher age of parents and a higher number of early-born children, since autism is a congenital brain disorder originating in the period of pregnancy, MfD writes.
Ten years ago, Czech women gave birth to their first child at the age of 25 on average, but now they have the first offspring after turning 30.
The risk of autism also increases with the rising age of fathers. Czech men have their first child at about 35 at present, the paper writes.
Studies have shown that the rise in autism is not to blame on vaccination, which some parents tend to believe.
“We know this based on extensive studies from various countries where vaccination is not compulsory. The occurrence of autism is approximately the same among the children who were vaccinated and those who were not,” child psychiatrist Michal Hrdlicka is quoted as saying.
Both experts and parents agree that making the diagnosis early is the best way to face autism, the daily writes.
Hrdlicka, from the Child Psychiatric Clinic in Prague’s Motol University Hospital, said the society is not prepared for the situation after the autistic children have grown up.
“The occurrence [of autism] has been sharply rising for 30 years and we suppose its culmination to be still ahead of us,” Hrdlicka said.
One in 5,000 people suffered from autism in 1975, one in 2,500 in 1985, one in 150 in 2007 and one in 68, which is 1.5 percent of the population, at present, Hrdlicka said.
The increase is much sharper than in the case of other mental disorders, he said.
Katerina Thorova, a psychologist from the National Institute for Autism, said people’s awareness of autism has improved in the past years.
As a result, the institute’s consultation centres have been visited even by adults who uncovered symptoms of autism in themselves.
Their number has been rising as well. “In 2007, we diagnosed about ten adults with autism a year. Their number reaches a hundred now,” Thorova said.
Before, these people were often wrongly diagnosed with diseases such as schizophrenia, she said.
rtj/t/kva
