Audio long read: Autism is on the rise — what’s really behind the increase?

In April, Robert F. Kennedy Jr held a press conference about rising diagnoses of autism, and said he would soon be announcing a study to find the responsible agent. Although Kennedy said that environmental factors are the main cause of autism, research has shown that genetics plays a bigger part. Also, the rise in prevalence, many researchers say, is predominantly caused by an increase in diagnoses rather than a true rise in the underlying symptoms and traits.Although the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced a US$50 million to fund studies on the causes of autism, many researchers were dismayed that these developments seemed to ignore decades of work on the well-documented rise in diagnoses and on causes of the developmental condition.This is an audio version of our Feature: Autism is on the rise — what’s really behind the increase? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.