The National Autistic Society (NAS) is planning to send an information pack to 34,000 GP practices to help doctors recognise disorders such as autism and Asperger’s syndrome.

The mailing includes reference material, a poster to be displayed in surgeries and cards advertising the society’s autism helpline.

The charity has sent family doctors a questionnaire asking about their experiences of the assessment, referral, diagnosis and support of autism patients. The results of the survey are due to be published next year.

Dr Jamie Nicholls, an NAS councillor and GP, said he hoped the pack would help broaden understanding of autism and inform GPs about recent research developments. He said, “We urge GPs to display the posters and contribute to the survey so that we can all work towards a wider awareness and better treatment of autism spectrum disorders.”

The campaign comes ahead of a final report from the National Initiative: Autism Screening and Assessment (NIASA), which is expected in 2003. The initiative, carried out by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, and the Royal College of Psychiatrists, will make recommendations for improving autism diagnosis and treatment in children across the UK.

NIASA’s preliminary recommendations, reported to the All Party Parliamentary Group on Autism in February this year, included establishing multi-agency diagnostic teams, incorporating early interventions into the diagnostic process and creating local referral pathways to give parents simple access to assessment and diagnosis.

Another major report, which was published in December 2001 by the Medical Research Council, estimated that around 6 in every 1,000 young children had an autistic spectrum disorder – making autism far more common than was previously thought.

The report suggested that most of the apparent increase probably resulted from changed definitions of autism spectrum disorders, as well as from increased awareness of the condition. However, there is still controversy over a potential link between the increase in autism diagnosis and the introduction of the MMR vaccine.

© HMG Worldwide 2002
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