Autism: A Timeline

Email the author
on December 04, 2009 at 4:27 PM, updated December 04, 2009 at 4:28 PM

The word "autism" has been in use for about 100 years. It comes from the Greek word "autos," meaning "self." The term describes conditions in which a person is removed from social interaction.

Following are key dates in autism research.

1911: Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler is the first person to use the term to refer to one group of symptoms of schizophrenia.

1943: Leo Kanner, a doctor at Johns Hopkins University, uses autism to describe the withdrawn behavior of several children under his care. At about the same time, Hans Asperger, a scientist in Germany, identified a similar condition now called Asperger's syndrome.

1960s: Medical professionals begin to have a separate understanding of autism and schizophrenia in children.

1960s-1970s: Research into treatments focuses on medications such as LSD, electric shock and behavior change techniques that often relied on pain and punishment.

1980s-1990s: Behavior therapy and controlled learning environments emerge as primary treatments for many forms of autism. Other treatments include medical and dietary therapy.

1991: Autism is added as a classification for special education services in the U.S. As of 2003, it was the sixth most commonly classified disability in the country, with 141,022 children served.

The top five categories are: specific learning disabilities (2.9 million); speech or language impairments (1.1 million); mental retardation (582,663); emotional disturbance (484,479); other impairments, often including ADHD (452,422).

2007: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention releases a study saying the rate of autism in the United States is one in 150.

2009: A report in the journal Pediatrics finds that one in every 91 children ages 3 to 17, or 673,000 children, have an autism spectrum disorder. Half the cases are said to be "mild."

Prompted by the Pediatrics study, the CDC releases a second study that finds about one in 100 8-year-olds has an autism spectrum disorder.

Source: WebMd; Plain Dealer research