Autism Spectrum Disorder: Controversies, Professional Beliefs, and Ethical and Legal Issues

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
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Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
The DSM-V presents Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) as a condition related to an environmental situation, known genetic or medical conditions associated with a behavior disorder, mental condition, and neurodevelopment. Individuals with ASD have impaired and deficit communication and interaction at various levels (Edition, 2013). Moreover, one must have repetitive, restricted and patterns of activities, behaviors, and interests. The patients are also limited in the use of nonverbal communication cues. There are controversies in the classification and management of ASD. Besides, practitioners and caregivers are limited to operate within specified ethical frameworks. Understanding ASD controversies, ethical and legal issues, and patient management through relationship construction are critical to providing sustainable care.
Controversy Surrounding ASD
Mitra and Jain (2021) define Dissociative disorders as a collection of health conditions characterized by the disruptions of behaviors, memory, identity, and consciousness. The disorders could be categorized into positive and negative symptoms. Some of the positive symptoms are manifested through derealization and the development of personalities. Autism (ASD) and paralysis are classified among the negative symptoms. The health sector continues to grapple with what it means to have Autism or what constitutes its symptoms. Notably, the condition has been described as a 20th-century disorder due to the rapid increase of knowledge and controversy to understand Autism as a mental disorder or a different health condition over the 20th Century (O’Reilly et al., 2020). The controversy over Autism proceeded at multiple fronts. First, there were arguments over its clinical features whereby experts presented methods for identifying, classifying, and labeling Autism. Therefore, Autism became officially categorized in this period. Also, pharmacological treatments and the role of psychiatrists became important in Autism management. Moreover, wider controversy occurred through political movements, rhetoric, disability, and social models, consumerism, antipsychiatry, neurodiversity, and critical psychiatry over the classification of Autism.
The DSM-V Autism classification and treatment method have been the source of significant controversies. O’Reilly et al. (2020) note that children's treatment has catalyzed a significant proportion of the controversy. Practitioners, including nurses and psychologists, established a range of treatment stages whereby a child was seen as evolving in them. Childhood was established to continue between birth and before the adolescence stage. The treatments shifted from psychiatric and psychologist family-based treatment to a pharmacological approach; the change in approach created and marked a period of controversy. The DSM classification tool was revised in 1994 (DSM-IV) to accommodate 30 years of understanding and controversy concerning ASD (Hyman et al., 2020). The traditional approach, established in 1952 DSM, only identified advanced ASD manifestation. The new model introduced spectrum ASD, whereby ASD was understood as having a range of symptoms...