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In an excellent survey article, the authors review the differential diagnosis of the syndrome, the clinical, biochemical, neurophysiological research, and its medical management and treatment. They describe the behavioral characteristics, including disturbance of perception, developmental rate, relating, speech and language, and motility. The authors conclude that no known factors in the psychological environment of the child can cause autism; that it affects children of all racial and ethnic backgrounds in all parts of the world; that no etiologically based rational treatment is available that alters the course of the disease; that periodic medical and neurological evaluations are essential to establish the diagnosis and should be repeated at yearly intervals with attention paid to the likelihood that seizure disorders may appear in individual patients; that supportive and symptomatic therapeutic measures are helpful in most cases; and that the long-term prognosis is guarded. This article, despite its comparative brevity, is comprehensive in scope and replete with excellent references to substantiate the conclusions drawn.