Autism spectrum disorders (ASD), attention deficit disorder with – or without – hyperactivity (ADHD), dyslexia but also dyscalculia, dysorthography, dyspraxia or dysgraphia, intellectual development disorders (IDD)… In the classrooms class, many teachers have the feeling of being faced with a “flight » cases. As for psychiatrists, pediatricians and other health professionals, we discuss the figures with caution, also because“there is, strictly speaking, no epidemiological study specific to France and [qu’]we still need to reason by transposing international studies to the French demographic situation,” explains public health doctor Etienne Pot, appointed, in November 2023, interministerial delegate to the national strategy for neurodevelopmental disorders, or “TND”, the three letters which refer to all of these conditions.
However, by extrapolation of surveys carried out in the United States, and converging with other results in the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia in particular, clinicians report a high incidence. And even, it seems, increasingly strong: in the United States, 17.8% of children were affected by TND during the period 2015-2017, compared to 16.2% in the years 2009-2011, according to the study by researcher and health statistician Benjamin Zablotsky published in Pediatricsin 2019, which is a reference.
In many countries over the past twenty years, the prevalence of these disorders seems to be following an upward trend, particularly for ASD and ADHD. To the point that, on the ground, we are talking about up to one in six people who could be affected. A public health issue.
“The epidemiological data is a little dizzying”, had affirmed Claire Compagnon, Etienne Pot’s predecessor as interministerial delegate, speaking before the Academy of Medicine in spring 2023. Trouble by trouble, the feeling is confirmed: according to Inserm, ASD affects 700,000 people, including 100 approximately 000 minors. For ADHD, between 3% and 6% of children are affected; for “dys” disorders, between 4% and 5% of an age group… “It is also estimated that one in two neurodevelopmental disorders is associated with another”, observes Etienne Pot. Of the “co-occurrences”, he said again, which confirm the need for screening “as early as possible”.
Screenings on the rise
This is the orientation confirmed in the new 2023-2027 strategy announced by the executive, in November 2023, and which, after four autism plans, officially broadened the scope of public action to all TND disorders, by focusing in particular on identification “systematic” developmental gaps from birth to 6 years.
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