A photo of Uta Frith Dame Uta Frith, who pioneered much of the research that underpins autism, says the concept of a spectrum has become so 'stretched' that it is now 'meaningless'
A photo of Wes Streeting Wes Streeting has ordered an independent review into soaring demand for mental health, ADHD and autism services after warning of an 'overdiagnosis' of conditions - before backtracking on his comments
A photo of Uta Frith yahoo/news There is no autism spectrum, says expert who pioneered concept Michael Searles Thu, March 5, 2026 at 4:50 PM GMT
dailymail.co.uk The number of children meeting 'strict' criteria - involving tell-tale signs such as impaired social communication and interaction, and repetitive behaviour – has ‘remained relatively stable', Dame Uta said. But a second group - often younger women - with milder issues who are otherwise verbally fluent but 'feel highly anxious in social situations' and are 'hypersensitive' has grown dramatically. Being autistic has become 'glamorised, and a diagnosis has become somewhat desirable', she said, contrasting it with the attitude towards a condition like schizophrenia. 'The spectrum has become so accommodating that I fear that it has now been stretched so far that it has become meaningless and is no longer useful as a medical diagnosis,' she said. Dame Uta stressed that she does not want to diminish the debilitating effects of traits such as aversion to noise or social awkwardness. But she says including them within the autism spectrum disorder can actually be counter-productive. In order to target research and support where it is really needed, she is now in favour of replacing the existing spectrum with subcategories such as strict clinical autism, Asperger's, and conditions such as hypersensitivity.
While your previous research was & is a part of Autistic history, you are now utterly out of touch and irrelevant & that’s a damn shame . You could have offered so much more than this illogical , #stigmatising, defective #deficit reasoning.
Shame on you.
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