The diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder is essentially delays in communication and socialization. There are also issues with eye contact, self-stimulatory behaviors and sensory integration. Children with ASD lack spontaneity. The best way to define this syndrome is the word "spectrum" in Autism Spectrum Disorder. Over the past seven years I have seen hundreds of children with a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder who typically vary in degrees of involvement and often have very different histories. The key to helping a child is to review that child's medical history and base the therapies recommended to fit the individual patient's individual needs.

For example, there are children who typically are doing well and are often advanced at 15-18 months and then show marked regressions in language, socialization and behavior. Conversely, a number of children who have been diagnosed with Autism have problems with social interaction and eye contact in early infancy. Other children may receive this diagnosis after the age of age 4 as Autism can be at times difficult to diagnose.

Typically, therapies that help one child can turn out to be a disaster for the next. As of now, there are no cures. A number of interventions that have been recommended by advocates of autoimmune causation help 20-40% of children. Some respond best to ABA and/or play therapy and there is a subset that responds best to medications such as Risperdal. Indeed, this is a spectrum disorder; the key is obtaining a comprehensive medical history from parents.

As long as I have been involved in dealing with Autism, there has been a great deal of disagreement between the conventional world of medicine consisting of pediatricians, developmental pediatricians, neurologists, child psychiatrists and physicians representing of NIH, CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics. This "conventional" group believes that all children with Autism have a genetic disorder. Most of the research money being utilized currently is aimed at finding a genetic cause for Autism. The conventional group believes that the primary reason for the staggering increase in the rate of Autism is that "we are better at making the diagnosis."

In contrast, believers in an autoimmune basis for Autism include a number of physicians who have a child with Autism, parents of autistic children as well as speech and occupational therapists who deal with autistic children on a regular basis. The autoimmune theorists believe that most children with Autism have had an autoimmune insult, which may include immunizations, especially those containing Thimerosal (Mercury), ingestion of casein (milk, yogurt, cheese, ice cream) and/or gluten (wheat, oat, barley, rye and spelt), increased antibiotic use (especially the first two years of life) and viral infections. A number of autoimmune theory advocates do feel that autistic children are genetically "vulnerable," but do not necessarily have a genetic defect. This would explain why most developmentally normal children can be immunized, eat casein and gluten and have antibiotic after antibiotic and do fine.

It is my opinion that Autism is truly a "mixed bag." There is a certain percentage, let's say 50% who eventually will be found to have a genetic marker. However, to account for the staggering increased rate of Autism over the past 15 years, I would agree with the autoimmune theorists that many children are genetically at risk in receiving Thimerosal preserved immunizations, casein/gluten foods, antibiotics, as well as the number of immunizations that are given in the first two years. For this growing number of children, biomedical interventions should be strongly considered.