Autism Paper

Mental Illness 1

Mental Illness Paper
Angela Renee Walters
University of Phoenix/Axia College

Mental Illness 2
I chose the topic of Autism to do my paper on.   Since I know so many people that suffer from this mental illness. I am going to explain the history and background of the disease, the signs and symptoms, identify the neurotransmitters associated with autism.   I am also going to explain how autism is diagnosed, including the tests and the types of professionals involved.   As well as, describe the treatments and how the patient’s environment can either promote or detract from successful treatment and describe how diagnosis and treatment of autism today compares to diagnosis and treatment of the past.
The word “autism,” which has been in use for about 100 years, comes from the Greek word “autos,” meaning “self.” The term describes conditions in which a person is removed from social interaction- hence a isolated self. Eugen Bleuler, a Swiss psychiatrist, was the first person to use the word. He started using it around 1911 to refer to one group of symptoms of schizophrenia. In the 1940s, researchers in the United States began to use the term “autism” to describe children with emotional or social problems. Leo Kanner, a doctor from John Hopkins University, used the term to describe the withdrawn behavior of several children that he studied. At about the same time, Hans Asperger, a scientist in Germany, identified a similar condition that’s now called Asperger’s syndrome. Autism and schizophrenia remained linked in many researchers’ minds until the 1960s. It was only then that medical professionals began to have a separate understanding of autism in children. From the 1960s through the 1970s, research into treatments for autism focused on medications such as LSD, electric shock, and behavioral change techniques. The latter relied on pain and punishment. During the 1980s and 1990s, the role of behavior therapy and the use of highly controlled learning...