2026-09-16T07:44:14Zhttps://gredos.usal.es/oai/request

oai:gredos.usal.es:10366/1688192026-03-16T09:25:56Zcom_10366_4623com_10366_4576com_10366_3823col_10366_4624

Mendez, Maria A. Oakley, Bethany Canitano, Roberto Tinelli, Michela Knapp, Martin Cusack, James Parellada, Mara Violland, Pierre Derk Plas, Jan R. Murphy, Declan G.M. Quoidbach, Vinciane Arango, Celso San Jose Cáceres, Antonia Canal Bedia, Ricardo Bejarano Martín, Álvaro arango 2026-01-15T10:43:23Z 2026-01-15T10:43:23Z 2023-09-11 Mendez, Maria A., et al. «Autism Care Pathway in Europe». European Psychiatry, vol. 66, n.o 1, 2023, p. e81. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1192/j.eurpsy.2023.2435. 0924-9338 http://hdl.handle.net/10366/168819 10.1192/J.EURPSY.2023.2435 1778-3585 [EN] Background. Autism is a lifelong complex neurodevelopmental condition that affects brain development and behaviour with significant consequences for everyday life. Despite its personal, familial, and societal impact, Europe-wide harmonised guidelines are still lacking for early detection, diagnosis, and intervention, leading to an overall unsatisfactory autistic person and carer journey. Methods. The care pathway for autistic children and adolescents was analysed in Italy, Spain and the UK from the perspective of carers (using a survey aimed at caregivers of autistic children 0–18 years old), the autistic community, and professionals in order to identify major barriers (treatment gaps) preventing carers from receiving information, support, and timely screening/ diagnosis and intervention. Results. Across all three countries, analysis of the current care pathway showed: long waits from the time carers raised their first concerns about a child’s development and/or behaviour until screening and confirmed diagnosis; delayed or no access to intervention once a diagnosis was confirmed; limited information about autism and how to access early detection services; and deficient support for families throughout the journey. Conclusions. These findings call for policy harmonisation in Europe to shorten long wait times for diagnosis and intervention and therefore, improve autistic people and their families’ journey experience and quality of life. EU/EFPIA/ SFARI/Autistica/AUTISM SPEAKS Innovative Medicines Initiative 2 Joint Undertaking (AIMS-2-TRIALS grant n° 777394) application/pdf eng Cambridge University Press Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internacional http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Autism Diagnosis Early intervention Early screening Policy recommendations Diagnosis Autistic Disorder 61 Psicología 3212 Salud Publica 6105 Evaluación y Diagnostico en Psicología trastorno autístico diagnóstico Autism care pathway in Europe info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion https://doi.org/10.1192/j.eurpsy.2023.2435 H2020-JTI-IMI2-777394-2 European Psychiatry 66 1 1 10