Historical View of Autism Diagnosis According to Dsm Criteria: A Mini-Review

Research Article

Abstract

To trace the origins of the use of the term “autism” in psychiatry, we must go back to the early 1900s, when the term was used to describe severe social withdrawal in patients suffering from serious psychiatric illnesses. With the clinical descriptions of numerous clinicians, particularly Leo Kanner and Hans Asperger, distinct clinical entities began to emerge that were distinct from the psychiatric categories of the time. In 1980, autism was established as a diagnostic category in the DSM-III. Therefore, throughout the various editions of the DSM, numerous modifications have been made to the diagnostic criteria, leading to the development of dimensional aspects characteristic of the autistic spectrum.