Acute onset of autistic features following brain damage in a ten-year-old.

We report the case of a 10-year-old boy who, following a prolonged period of unconsciousness, displayed severe eye-to-eye gaze avoidance, sensory inattention, and some other behavioral symptoms normally associated with the syndrome of infantile autism. The symptoms lasted only a few months and were associated with the more permanent behavioral changes of postencephalitic psychosis. Serial computerized tomography scans were taken during his illness and recovery. The relevance of this case to the etiology of infantile autism is discussed.