AUTISM - 50 YEARS ON FROM KANNER

It is now 50 years since Leo Kanner first described autism as a distin ctive pattern of symptoms in some children with severe developmental p roblems. Since then the assessment and diagnosis of children with perv asive disorders of development has been refined and much is known abou t the phenomenology and epidemiology. Autism is a biological disorder of the central nervous system (CNS) of unknown cause. It is associated with a number of organic disorders such as epilepsy and has comorbidi ty with other psychiatric disorders such as tic disorder. Cognitive ab normalities in social interactions, affect and language are present bu t there is still debate regarding which of these, if any, is the prima ry cognitive deficit. Special education and behavioural management has led to modest but important developmental improvement in many childre n with autism. Autism remains a life-long condition but patterns of sy mptoms change and skills develop from childhood into adult life.