Stanković Miodrag, Lakić Aneta, Ilić Neda
Clinic for Mental Health Protection, Clinical Centre, Nis, Serbia.
Srp Arh Celok Lek. 2012 Mar-Apr;140(3-4):236-43.
Autism is one of disorders from the autism spectrum, besides Asperger syndrome, atypical autism and pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified. They are classified as mental disorders as being manifested by a wide range of cognitive, emotional and neurobehavioural abnormalities. Key categorical characteristics of the disorder are clear impairments of the development of the child's socialisation, understanding and production of verbal and non-verbal communication and restricted and repetitive patterns of behaviour. Demarcation boundaries are not clear, neither within the very group of the disorders from the autistic spectrum, nor with respect to the autistic behavioural features in the general population. For this reason, the term spectrum points out the significance of the dimensional assessment of autistic disorders, which will most likely be the basis of the new diagnostic classification of the disorders belonging to the current group of pervasive developmental disorders in the new DSM-V classification. The understanding, as well as the prevalence of the autistic spectrum disorders has changed drastically in the last four decades. From the previous 4 per 10,000 people, today's prevalence estimates range from 0.6 to around 1%, and the increase of prevalence cannot be explained solely by better recognition on the part of experts and parents or by wider diagnostic criteria. The general conclusion is that the autistic spectrum disorders are no longer rare conditions and that the approach aimed at acknowledging the warning that this is an urgent public health problem is completely justified.
自闭症是自闭症谱系障碍之一，此外还有阿斯伯格综合征、非典型自闭症和未特定的广泛性发育障碍。它们被归类为精神障碍，表现为广泛的认知、情感和神经行为异常。该障碍的关键分类特征是儿童社交能力发展明显受损、言语和非言语交流的理解与表达能力受限，以及行为模式受限和重复。无论是在自闭症谱系障碍群体内部，还是相对于一般人群中的自闭症行为特征，其划分界限都不明确。因此，“谱系”一词指出了对自闭症谱系障碍进行维度评估的重要性，这很可能是新的《精神疾病诊断与统计手册》第五版（DSM-V）分类中属于当前广泛性发育障碍组的疾病新诊断分类的基础。在过去的四十年里，对自闭症谱系障碍的理解以及其患病率都发生了巨大变化。以前每万人中有4人患病，如今患病率估计在0.6%至1%左右，患病率的增加不能仅仅用专家和家长认识的提高或诊断标准的放宽来解释。总的结论是，自闭症谱系障碍不再是罕见病症，承认这是一个紧迫的公共卫生问题的做法是完全合理的。
