The treatment of autism has aroused a lot of questions and controversy in the medical community ever since the disease was first discovered and described about halfway through the last century.
This has been largely because there really aren't any known cures for the condition - even its causes remain an enigma, although various chemical, biological and environmental factors have been identified as potential risk elements that contribute to the incidence of the disease in children all over the world.
What is known about autism is that it is a severe developmental disorder that affects the ability of a child to communicate with people in their environment, making it difficult for them to make friends, share joys, or even experience relationships.
The patients often tend to suffer from some kind of mental retardation as well, but there are occasional glimpses of brilliance, intelligence and high IQ that has led people to believe that the disorder might perhaps be a mask for some other kind of extraordinary ability.
Without scientific proof, this remains only as speculation, and IQ tests have proven that a greater number of autism patients basically just have average or lower intelligence.
The fact that autism symptoms vary in sufferers and some are actually not even present in many patients with similar symptoms has caused psychologists and psychiatrists to conclude that there are more than one disease that make up the autism spectrum.
Hence, they are classified as autism spectrum disorders or pervasive developmental disorders.
Following this, it has become critical that proper diagnosis be made of the patient before any treatment is administered, because the wrong kind of medication for a sufferer can actually yield adverse results.