Q J Med 2002; 95: 263-265
© 2002 Association of Physicians
Editorial |
Autism—what is it and where does it come from?
National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit, Oxford University
It is difficult to imagine how distressing it must be to have a son so sensitive to touch that he recoils whenever he is held. Perhaps it is easier to imagine the disruption if your daughter screamed with rage on leaving the house, unless you took her to the park she visited on her first excursion in a pram. Autism is a puzzling and frightening condition. As the recent furore concerning Andrew Wakefield's research illustrates, it commands the attention of both the public and the medical profession.1 Given this high profile, it is surprising how few professional and lay people could explain what the diagnosis means, and that no-one has coherently explained its causes.
Like epilepsy or cerebral palsy, autism is not a single disease but a name (deriving from the Greek ‘autos’, meaning ‘self’) given to a behavioural phenotype that may have
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