Russia and Autism

The history of autism research in Russia began in 1926 when G. Sukhareva published the chapter, which is believed to be the first description of the Asperger syndrome (Ssucharewa and Wolff 1996). Several years later, Simson described a similar condition for preschool children (Simson 1929). These were accurate accounts of autism manifestations that the authors called schizoid psychopathy, and the clinical elaboration of autistic features was seen as formation of schizophrenic personality. For many years, autism had been considered as a part of the schizophrenic complex of symptoms until the first classification of autism disorders was developed in Mental Health Research Center in 1997. Its publication coincided with the decision of the Russian Ministry of Public Health to follow the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10). On the one hand, the national classification and ICD-10 have regularized the diagnosis of autism and other pervasive developmental disorders. On the other hand, patients with psychotic symptoms fell into three diagnostic groups: atypical childhood psychosis (F84.1) and two categories introduced in the Russian adaptation of ICD-10 (1999) – childhood psychosis (F84.02) within the group childhood autism (F84.0) and childhood schizophrenia (F20.8xx3). Especially differentiation between F84.1 and F20.8xx3 remains diagnostically problematic (Simashkova et al. 2013); thus, it is likely that many patients on the spectrum are diagnosed with schizophrenia. Moreover, autism and autism spectrum disorders are very rarely diagnosed in adults and remain a child phenomenon in clinical contexts and public understanding. A detailed account of the clinical tradition of autism understanding in Russia is given in Bashina (1999), Tiganov and Bashina (2005), and Psychiatry (2011). Since 2003, a specialized Russian-language journal Autizm i narusheniya razvitiya [Autism and Development Disorders] has been published in Moscow. It appears four times a year and covers a wide range of educational and clinical topics addressed to professionals and parents/caregivers. Along with original materials, it occasionally includes translations of articles and educational resources published abroad ).