Abstract
The diagnosis of infantile autism is sometimes used as if it refers to a specific disease (e.g., Rimland, 1964) which might have a single identifiable etiology both in psychophysiological and pathological terms. However, it appears unlikely that autism will prove to be a biologically homogeneous condition. Already there is a long list of organic brain syndromes which have been reported to occur in association with autism. These include the sequelae of prenatal and perinatal complications (Taft & Goldfarb, 1964), neonatal conditions such as retrolental fibroplasia which may be associated with brain damage (Keeler, 1958), infantile spasms (Creak, 1963; Kolvin et al., 1971; Menolascino, 1965; Schain & Yannet, 1960; Taft & Cohen, 1971), cerebral lipoidosis (Creak, 1963), and metabolic conditions such as phenylketonuria (Wing, 1966; Sorosky et al., 1968; Anthony, 1962), Addison’s disease (Money et al., 1971), and celiac disease (Goodwin & Goodwin, 1969; Goodwin et al., 1971), as well as infectious conditions such as congenital rubella (Wing, 1969; Chess, 1971).
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Ornitz, E.M. (1978). Biological Homogeneity or Heterogeneity?. In: Rutter, M., Schopler, E. (eds) Autism. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-0787-7_16
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-0787-7_16
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