In the past couple of decades, a lot has been learned about autism and how to best treat it. Recently, a psychiatric organization, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry issued a practice guidelines update to reflect these discoveries.
The update is to the organization’s practice guidelines on how to best assess and treat autism in juveniles. The recently issued update represents the first update to these guidelines since they were set in 1999.
The organization looked at findings from thousands of autism studies when developing the recommendations the guidelines update contains. Included among the recommendations the update contains are that clinicians should take a multidisciplinary approach when treating autism, that clinicians should make sure to be judicious when it comes to using medications as treatments and that clinicians should be very active in providing help and support to the siblings and parents of autism sufferers. It will be interesting to see if the updates to the guidelines have any major impacts on how clinicians treat autism in children.
How effective of treatment an autism sufferer receives when they are a child can have many impacts on their adult life. For example, it can have implications regarding whether an autism sufferer will be able to be an active member of the workforce when they are an adult.
Some adult autism sufferers are unable to work. Such individuals may have eligibility for disability benefits, such as Supplemental Security Income benefits or Social Security Disability benefits. Experienced disability attorneys know the qualification rules for such disability programs and can help autism sufferers with the application process for such programs.
Source: Disability Scoop, “New Recommendations Guide Treatment For Those On The Spectrum,” Michelle Diament, Feb. 4, 2014