Autism is a complex, biological, developmental disability that causes problems with social interaction and communication.  It is usually associated with restrictive or repetitive interests and behaviors throughout life. 

In the past, little was known about this condition. It was thought to be rare, institutionalization was the main form of treatment, and it was said to be the result of “cold mothers. Researchers have since discovered that all of these characteristics are untrue.

For a health care professional, the challenge of how to handle a patient with autism is especially difficult for a variety of reasons. This publication highlights questions commonly asked by health care professionals about autism and provides answers based on the latest autism research.

Many of the answers provided here resulted from studies conducted by the Network on the Neurobiology and Genetics of Autism: Collaborative Programs of Excellence in Autism (CPEA), a worldwide research network co-sponsored by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and the  National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), parts of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The CPEA Network conducts research on the genetics and neurobiology of autism, through partnerships among more than 25 universities in the U.S., Canada, Britain, and France. As the largest single autism-specific research endeavor to date, the CPEA is trying to understand autism and its many facets.  Other individual NICHD- and NIH-supported scientists are also contributing new knowledge to this cause.

Information provided in this document about autism symptoms and diagnosis also comes from The Screening and Diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorders, an article authored by a multidisciplinary Consensus Panel assembled at the NIH in 1998. This panel, composed of seven NIH Institutes, nine professional organizations, and three autism parents’ groups, reviewed over 2,500 scientific publications on screening for and diagnosing autism. The resulting article was published in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disabilities in 1999 (Volume 29, Number 6, pages 439-484).

Subsequently, many medical academies, professional organizations, and parent and advocacy groups in autism, led by the American Academy of Neurology and the Child Neurology Society, met to build on the Panel’s base, developing a practice parameter and providing clinical guidance for screening and diagnosing autism. The practice parameter was published in Neurology in 2000, and in Pediatrics in 2001. Other medical and professional journals are expected to publish the parameter in the future.

For a complete listing of the groups included in the Consensus Panel, or for more information about the CPEAs or autism research at the NICHD, please refer to the Q: Where can I go for more information about autism? section at the end of this document. The citations for the articles mentioned above are also available in this section.

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