Childhood Autism: An Investigation of Aetiological Factors in Twenty-five Cases

In 1943 Kanner described a disease entity which he referred to as ‘Infantile Autism’. Creak and Ini (1960) found no evidence of psychogenic aetiology in a study of 200 parents of autistic children. Bender (1955) retrospectively studied children seen at Bellevue Hospital for behavioural or developmen...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:British journal of psychiatry 1970-11, Vol.117 (540), p.525-529
Main Authors: Lobascher, M. E., Kingerlee, P. E., Gubbay, S. S.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Alcoholism
Autistic Disorder - epidemiology
Autistic Disorder - etiology
Brain Diseases - complications
Child
Child, Preschool
Electroencephalography
Father-Child Relations
Female
Gestational Age
Humans
Intellectual Disability
Intelligence Tests
Mental Disorders
Obstetric Labor Complications
Pregnancy
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Summary:In 1943 Kanner described a disease entity which he referred to as ‘Infantile Autism’. Creak and Ini (1960) found no evidence of psychogenic aetiology in a study of 200 parents of autistic children. Bender (1955) retrospectively studied children seen at Bellevue Hospital for behavioural or developmental disorders and who had been diagnosed as schizophrenic before seven years of age. No preponderance of the sophisticated, intelligent, well-to-do parents as described by Kanner was found; every racial and religious group was represented, Jews predominating slightly. A strong genetic predisposing factor was indicated—40 per cent of the parents were schizophrenic. Stroh (1962) insists that the child's condition cannot be attributed to maternal mishandling, and Wing (1966) has said ‘It is possible to interpret the data to support both environmental and biological theories of primary causation, but on the whole the former argument is very difficult to sustain.’
ISSN:0007-1250
1472-1465
DOI:10.1192/bjp.117.540.525