The Autisms

The Autisms, written by Mary Coleman and Christopher Gillberg, demonstrates that autism, like mental retardation, is a clinical presentation of numerous different diseases, many with genomic underpinnings. In this ground-breaking work, the authors explain in great detail how to clinically diagnose infants, children, adolescents and adults with autistic behavioral features and their psychiatric and neurological work-ups. This new edition contains several chapters on the associated problems of autism, such as intellectual disability, epilepsy, tics, eating disorders and sleep problems, as well as a chapter on epidemiology that documents the historical increase in autism diagnoses. Several chapters summarize the latest data on neuroanatomy, biochemistry and neuropsychology, while three neurogenomics chapters show evidence suggesting that autism occurs due to genetic errors which cause interruption or misdirection of critical neurodevelopmental circuits in the fetal brain. Completely up-to-date,The Autismsis relevant and necessary reading for researchers and clinicians in neuroscience, neurology, pediatrics, psychiatry, and psychology.

Mary Coleman is a pediatric neurologist specializing in neurodevelopmental disorders. She has published over 100 papers and nine medical books, five of which are on autism. She was educated at the University of Chicago, Johns Hopkins University and George Washington University with neurology training at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center and Children's Hospital in D.C.


Christopher Gillberg is Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the Gillberg Neuropsychiatry Centre at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. He is one of the leading neuropsychiatrists in the world and has published over 500 papers and 25 books. He is an active researcher and clinician in the field of autism as well as in the fields of other childhood onset neurodevelopmental disorders, including ADHD, tic disorders, learning disability, epilepsy and eating disorders.