Psychiatrist explained the danger of alternative methods of "treatment" of autism

With autism spectrum disorder (ASD), patients primarily need the help of an educator, behavioral therapist, speech pathologist, speech therapist, etc., rather than a doctor, but people are looking for ways to cure ASD and often turn to clinics that offer dangerous alternative methods. Psychiatrist Stepan Krasnoshchekov told Izvestia about this.

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In the Krasnodar Territory, the diagnosis given to the girl by the federal medical center is not recognized.

In his opinion, it is much more important not to "cure" a person with ASD, but to teach him to live in society.

"However, in our mentality we call this disorder a disease, and parents are looking for treatment. But we can't do anything about the main symptoms of autism. There have been a lot of studies, studies of mechanisms and methods of treatment: everything has been tried, everything has been tested, and nothing works," the source admitted.

Experts are trying to convey this idea to people, the doctor noted. According to him, information is working: the situation is much better now than it was five years ago. But there is still a lot of work ahead.

Against this background, there are a lot of different specialists who, either by their own delusion or by malicious intent, are trying to profit from the "treatment" of ASD, the expert pointed out.

"Unfortunately, there are many clinics that offer such alternative treatments. It is difficult to say whether they are deliberately deceiving or not, because I know many doctors who really believe in the effectiveness of their actions," Krasnoshchekov said.

He added that as a result, patients are prescribed a lot of unnecessary medications, "which are not just useless, but can actually be harmful."

Read more in the Izvestia article:

Avoiding the Reckoning: how private clinics profit from children with autism