Abstract
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by social communication and interaction deficits and restricted, repetitive patterns of interests and behavior that are evident in early childhood. Its prevalence has grown substantially over the past several decades, with current estimates ranging from 1.7% to 2.5% in the United States. 1 , 2 This represents more than 1.5 million children with ASD, the vast majority of whom receive or will receive specialized services. 2 Each year, approximately 100,000 (and growing) individuals with ASD reach adulthood, and many face myriad challenges related to employment, housing, mental health, and overburdened or insufficient support services. 3-5 A host of significant costs can be associated with ASD, from direct costs related to the provision of special education programs, housing, and medical care to indirect costs, such as loss of productivity affecting both individuals with ASD and their families. 6 Currently, overall lifetime cost of care per person with ASD can exceed $3 million, totaling more than $265 billion annually in the United States and rising to an estimated $1 trillion by 2025. 7 , 8.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 958-967 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| Journal | Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry |
| Volume | 60 |
| Issue number | 8 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Aug 2021 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) under award numbers R01HD055741 , R01MH116961 , and R01MH118362 . The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.
Funding Information:
This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) under award numbers R01HD055741, R01MH116961, and R01MH118362. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.Disclosure: Dr. Wolff has received grant or research support from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the National Institute of Mental Health. Dr. Piven has received grant or research support from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, and the Simons Foundation. He has served on the John Merck Fund Scientific Advisory Board. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders. He is co-inventor of UNC file 16-0185, patent application PCT/US2017/040032, ?Methods, Systems, and Computer Readable Media for Utilizing Functional Connectivity Brain Imaging for Diagnosis of a Neurobehavioral Disorder.? Funding acquisition: Wolff, Piven
Keywords
- Adult
- Autism Spectrum Disorder/epidemiology
- Autistic Disorder
- Child
- Child, Preschool
- Humans
- Infant
- Mental Health
- Neurodevelopmental Disorders
- Prevalence
- United States/epidemiology
PubMed: MeSH publication types
- Editorial
- Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural