title: [Autism spectrum disorders in elderly].
abstract: Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have been largely neglected in the field of elderly psychiatry. ASD were characterized by a triad of qualitative impairments in the aspects of social interaction, communication, and restricted patterns of behavior and interests. The prevalence of ASD was not clearly estimated in elderly. In clinical practice, elderly patients with confirmed ASD were not usually diagnosed properly earlier in life for various reasons. However, the understanding of characteristic with ASD is useful for clinicians, because we can arrange a suitable environment for patients with ASD. We tend to make overdiagnoses of ASD because of paying attention to only frontal lobe syndrome. We should exclude neurodegenerative disease, especially frontotemporal lobar degeneration.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine.
authors.forename: Noriko
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Hasegawa
authors.forename: Yasuji
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yamamoto
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D002659:Child Development Disorders, Pervasive / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans