ArticleMedicine, health care, and philosophy2015
Fundamental challenges for autism research: the science-practice gap, demarcating autism and the unsuccessful search for the neurobiological basis of autism.
Article in Medicine, health care, and philosophy, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed.
- Predicting Mental and Neurological Illnesses Based on Cerebellar Normative Features.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2025Article
- Current and future directions of drug delivery for the treatment of mental illnesses.Advanced drug delivery reviews · 2023Review
- Annual Research Review: Shifting from 'normal science' to neurodiversity in autism science.Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines · 2022Review
- Are Vermal Lobules VI-VII Smaller in Autism Spectrum Disorder?Cerebellum (London, England) · 2020Article
- Parents' multi-layered expectations when requesting an Autism Spectrum Disorder assessment of their young child: an in-depth interview study.BMC psychiatry · 2020Article
- Going Beyond the Catch-22 of Autism Diagnosis and Research. The Moral Implications of (Not) Asking "What Is Autism?"Frontiers in psychology · 2020Article
- Physician View and Experience of the Diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder in Young Children.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2019Article
- Implications of an Autism Spectrum Disorder Diagnosis: An Interview Study of How Physicians Experience the Diagnosis in a Young Child.Journal of clinical medicine · 2018Article
- Perspective-taking is two-sided: Misunderstandings between people with Asperger's syndrome and their family members.Autism : the international journal of research and practice · 2018Article
- Perspectives on "Disease" and "Disability" in Child Health: The Case of Childhood Neurodisability.Frontiers in public health · 2016Review
- Comparing to a Neurotypical Norm Is Normal in Autistic Language and Communication Research: A Cross-Sectional Systematic Review and Critical Analysis of Recent Literature.Autism & developmental language impairmentsReview
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
One of the central aims of autism research is to identify specific neurodevelopmental mechanisms that cause and explain the visible autistic signs and symptoms. In this short paper, I argue that the persistent search for autism-specific pathophysiologies has two fundamental difficulties. The first regards the growing gap between basic autism science and clinical practice. The second regards the difficulties with demarcating autism as a psychiatric condition. Instead of the unremitting search for the neurobiological basis of autism, I suggest that basic autism research should focus on experiences of impairment and distress, and on how these experiences relate to particular (autistic) behaviors in particular circumstances, regardless of whether we are dealing with an autism diagnosis or not.
Indexed as
Identifiers
25828690What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.