The article discusses the troubling rise in autism diagnoses without a corresponding improvement in mental health outcomes for children. Despite well-intentioned efforts, the increase may be stigmatizing and detrimental to children's self-esteem and identity formation. Additionally, the issue of overdiagnosis in various medical fields, particularly with screening programs for diseases like cancer, raises concerns about the effectiveness and potential harm of detecting conditions that may not require intervention. The need for better diagnosis methods is emphasized, as current practices can lead to unnecessary treatment and psychological impact on patients.
What has happened now is that we have a massive increase in autism, and it is not having the downstream effect of making children better.
When you get to the very mild end of a spectrum of behavioral or learning problems, you have a balancing act between the benefit of being diagnosed along with the help you can get, and the drawbacks of being diagnosed... How does it affect their identity formation?
The more sensitive you make those tests, the more overdiagnosed people you will have. Every cancer screening program will lead to some people getting treatment when they didn't need to be treated.
The suggestion that we should do even more of these tests before we've perfected the ones we have does not make sense to me.
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