Autism diagnostics: Interaction of doctors and parents in the interest of children

Abstract

© 2020, Professionalnye Izdaniya. All rights reserved. In the article, there is discussed the interaction of doctors of various specialties and parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in the context of the theory of social constructionism. The main attention is given to the analysis of parents’ experience in interacting with doctors and medical organizations in the process of diagnosing ASD in children. The empirical base of the study comprises the material of 42 individual interviews with parents living in the cities of Kazan, Saint Petersburg, Yoshkar-Ola, and 3 focus groups; the analysis of 350 case histories (for the period of 2015-2018) of in-patients diagnosed with child autism at the Bekhterev Republican clinical psychiatric hospital of the Ministry of Health of Tatarstan. On the base of the analysis of the obtained data, it was showed that the district pediatricians are not alert in relation to ASD, even when parents clearly express concern about their child’s behavior. Neurologists initially prescribe medication and only after completing the entire course refer the child to psychiatrist. The average age of the child at the time of the final clinical diagnosis of F84.0 was 4.5±2 years. The time of using the entire arsenal of early intervention methods is passed. This situation can lead to social malfunctioning of patients with ASD and to institutional conflicts between medical professionals and parents of patients. The obtained results should be taken into account when organizing events and providing medical and correctional assistance to patients.