Autism Expert Available to Speak on CDC's New Autism Rates

Drexel University’s Dr. Craig Newschaffer, a renowned autism expert and chair of the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the Drexel University School of Public Health, is available to comment on the recently released report by the Center for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network (ADDM) that says one in every 70 boys in the United States is affected by autism, and that one in every 110 children has autism spectrum disease. Dr. Newschaffer is a Principal Investigator in the ADDM Network.

Newschaffer, who also directs the national Early Autism Research Longitudinal Investigation (EARLI) network, can discuss the following:

•What is the significance of the CDC’s new report and findings, and its potential impact of the report on autism research and treatment efforts?

•The increase in autism prevalence, and how studies directed by researchers at Drexel University and elsewhere, are hoping to find the cause or causes of autism spectrum disorders.

•What is the historical context of the newly reported increase in prevalence by the CDC, as well as the etiology of autism spectrum disorders?

Newschaffer is internationally recognized for his research on the etiology and epidemiology of autism spectrum disorders. Newschaffer currently directs the EARLI autism study, which is funded by more than $16M in grants and is one of only 11 Autism Centers of Excellence established by the National Institutes of Health. The national network is one of the largest research studies of its kind to investigate early risk factors for autism spectrum disorders, and is considered to be one of the best equipped to discover biological markers and environmental risk factors for autism.

Source: Drexel University