Are we making progress against autism?

Autism is one of the most challenging disabilities you’ll encounter among pediatric patients. A major developmental disorder of unknown cause, it requires intensive multidisciplinary intervention—and lasts a lifetime. No cure exists, but healthcare professionals and families of autistic persons are working hard to forge effective interventions.

Historical overview

Although many people first became aware of autism only from the 1988 hit movie Rain Man, clinicians have known about the disorder for nearly 100 years. The term autism derives from autismus, coined by Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler in 1910 to describe a subgroup of schizophrenic symptoms. (“Autos” is Greek for “self.”) Bleuler used autismus to describe the condition in which a person is an isolated self, removed from social interaction. In 1943, psychiatrist Leo Kanner published the first major paper on childhood au­tism, portraying it as a severe disorder of communi­cation and social interaction, commonly coupled with bizarre and repetitive behaviors and interests.

Until well into the 1970s, psychiatrists led by the influential Bruno Bettelheim blamed autism on poor parenting—specifically, emotionally distant and cold “refrigerator mothers” (in Bettelheim’s memorable phrase). Eventually this theory was proven false but it caused much harm for decades. Subsequent research decisively shifted the search for a cause to neurology and brain functions. For the last quarter of a century, that’s where researchers have been looking.

Today many professionals use the broader term autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) to refer not just to autism but to a broader group of related developmental disabilities, such as Asperger syndrome and the rarer Rett syndrome.