Ped Med: The many faces of autism SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 19 (UPI)
-- Although all show some degree of difficulty in socializing,
communicating and imagining, like snowflakes, no two cases of
autism are exactly alike, researchers say. Their newfound
recognition of the condition's diverse complexity and multi-
faceted nature carries over to the research field, where the
seekers of causes and cures are starting to look for ways to
subdivide the disorder and crack its armor of secrecy piece by
piece. "The analogy that I find most helpful is to childhood
leukemia," said Dr. Judith Miles, professor of pediatrics,
Thompson Endowed Chair of Child Health and Pathology and
director of the Medical Genetics Division at the University of
Missouri-Columbia. "When I went to medical school, we thought it
was one disorder, and only 5 percent of kids survived. Over the
past 25 years, we realized it's a class of disorders. By
separating the different types and learning how to treat each
appropriately, we were able to make progress