Lee Deborah A, Lopez-Alberola Robert, Bhattacharjee Meena
Department of Psychiatry, Tulane University School of Medicine, New Orleans, Louisiana 70112, USA.
Neurologist. 2003 Mar;9(2):99-109. doi: 10.1097/01.nrl.0000051441.03160.e0.
Autism is a disorder that can lead to life-long disability. Currently, the etiology of autism is unknown, and although there are treatments for some of the behavioral abnormalities, there is no cure.
While this article will review the clinical, anatomic, and pathologic features seen in autism, the primary focus will be to present a new and provocative unifying theory regarding the underlying mechanisms causing this disorder. Current research advances, some controversial, will be discussed, and a novel definition of autism as a "circuit syndrome" will be presented. The work elaborated here will tie many of the disparate findings together, based on the idea that autism arises from abnormalities of the cerebellolimbic circuitry. Some of the more alternative theories of autism, such as mercury toxicity, linkage to the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine, and the use of secretin will be discussed. Finally, pharmacologic treatment options will be reviewed.
Autism is not single disorder but represents dysfunction of the cerebellolimbic circuitry that can arise from many different etiologies.
自闭症是一种可导致终身残疾的疾病。目前，自闭症的病因尚不清楚，尽管针对某些行为异常有治疗方法，但尚无治愈方法。
本文将回顾自闭症的临床、解剖和病理特征，主要重点是提出一个关于导致该疾病潜在机制的新的且具有启发性的统一理论。将讨论当前的研究进展，其中一些存在争议，并将提出将自闭症定义为“回路综合征”的新定义。这里阐述的工作将基于自闭症源于小脑边缘回路异常这一观点，把许多不同的研究结果联系起来。还将讨论一些关于自闭症的更具争议性的理论，如汞中毒、与麻疹、腮腺炎和风疹疫苗的关联以及使用促胰液素。最后，将回顾药物治疗选择。
自闭症不是单一的疾病，而是代表由多种不同病因引起的小脑边缘回路功能障碍。
