Special Episode 13. Autism with Associate Professor Soumya Basu
The concept of autism continues to evolve with our current approach to diagnosis and management differing significantly from 1908 when the word first appeared to describe a subset of patients with schizophrenia who were withdrawn and self-absorbed. Child psychiatrist Leo Kanner was credited with the first correct description in 1943, reporting eleven highly intelligent children who displayed “a powerful desire for aloneness” and “an obsessive insistence on persistent sameness”. He named this “early infantile autism”.
A year later in 1944, Hans Asperger described a “milder” form of autism now known as Asperger’s Syndrome where the boys he described were highly intelligent but had trouble with social interactions and specific obsessive interests. A major setback came in 1967 with psychologist Bruno Bettelheim’s theory of “refrigerator mothers” implying parental responsibility and causality through a lack of shared love. This psychoanalytic approach to explaining autism caused major damage to the mental health of parents struggling to provide their children love and care and was extremely cruel in its ignorance. Similarly, the forged research that lead to the subsequently retracted 1998 Lancet article, authored by the deregistered Andrew Wakefield, significantly damaged community understanding of this condition whilst creating unwarranted fear and panic regarding measles, mumps, rubella vaccine and the use of thimerosal (a mercury-based preservative now withdrawn from all vaccines to allay public fears). By 1977, twin studies helped us to understand that autism is caused by genetics and biological differences in brain development.
In this podcast, I was curious to learn more about autism, its diagnosis, and approaches to management. It was a great privilege to have a conversation with child and adolescent psychiatrist Associate Professor Soumya Basu who has a special interest in developmental disabilities including autism spectrum disorder. Soumya is a fellow of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists and is a senior lecturer at the Department of Psychological Medicine, Monash University with other keen interests in youth mental health and developmental trauma. Please welcome Soumya to the Podcast.
References:
Associate Professor Soumya Basu: Victorian Centre for Mental Health www.vcmh.com.au, warragulspecialistcentre.com.au, St John of God Langmore Centre: www.sjog.org.au
Autism Spectrum Disorder - National Institutes of Health: www.nimh.nih.gov