The clinic of autism spectrum disorders and mental retardation

Abstract

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) refer to a group of disorders characterized by a shared spectrum of qualitative impairments in social interaction, associated with repetitive behaviors and pronounced restricted interests. ASDs have a wide range of severity and impairments, often being the cause of severe disability, representing a major public health problem. There is great heterogeneity in the phenotypic presentation of ASD, both with regard to the configuration and severity of behavioral symptoms. The new edition of the DSM brought a new structure of symptoms, and the triad of symptoms that models communication deficits separately from social impairments of the DSM-IV, which was replaced by a two-domain model composed of a domain related to social communication deficit and a second related to restricted and repetitive behaviors/interests. In addition, the criterion of delay or total absence of expressive language development was eliminated from the DSM-5, since research has shown that this characteristic is neither universal nor specific to individuals with ASD.