There is a 90 percent chance that people who have filed two or more autism-related insurance claims have an autism diagnosis, says a study published 5 June in Autism.

Few studies of autism prevalence have been conducted in low- and middle-income countries. Freely available screening and diagnostic tools could help address this disparity.

Discrepancies in global wealth create hurdles for autism diagnosis, treatments and cross-cultural research. How can open-access tools fix the problem?

Cultural factors may explain why attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is diagnosed less frequently in the U.K. than in the U.S., and autism more frequently, suggests a study published 30 May in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.

Abnormal cells in the placenta, usually discarded at birth, may be early indicators of autism, suggests a study published 22 April in Biological Psychiatry.

Many obstacles line the road to early diagnosis and treatment for children with autism, especially for immigrant families, says a study published in May.

As clinicians adopt the new criteria for autism, the many tests now used to diagnose the disorder may need to be modified, says Amy Esler.
 

The newest edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders overtly acknowledges that females with autism may have features that differ from those of males with the disorder, says William Mandy.

The newest edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders relies on intellectual function in daily life, both for diagnosing intellectual disability and for determining its level of severity, says Walter Kaufmann.

There is little to fear in the definition of autism in the latest edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, and a lot to recommend it, says Simon Baron-Cohen.