[The impact of autism on the life of parents].

The aim of this paper is to explore the stress and the psychological distress faced by parents of children living with different types of disability. Its main focus is on parents of children with autism. The first part describes the stress factors faced by parents of children with disabilities and the second, the particularities of the stress faced by parents of children with autism. The third part explores other types of stress factors, such as financial problems, marital discord or beak-up, single parenthood and lack of social support. In the forth part, we examine weather the services are well suited to provide for the needs of families, and, in the fifth part, we describe the major role played by intervention in the life of families of children with autism.