As Aitken states on the cover of his book “the concept of a single condition known as ‘autism’ is quickly becoming outdated and is now understood to be an umbrella term for a wide variety of predominantly genetic conditions”. This leads the reader straight into the premise of this work that genetics play a large part in autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) as according to the flyer for this book, the aim of the publication is to provide parents “with a complete overview of the main genetic disorders associated with autism, including those linked to growth differences, cardiovascular issues, neurodevelopmental problems, immune dysfunction, gastrointestinal disturbances and epilepsy”. Promoted as a useful handbook for parents and carers, the reviewer believes that many people attempting to read this volume would not understand the majority of the content as it is in fact far too scientific.
The book is divided into four sections of differing lengths: Section A entitled Focus on the Autistic Spectrum Disorders; Section B Clinical Disorders seen in the Autistic Spectrum Disorders; Section C Some Promising Developments and Section D Appendices followed by a glossary of terms, references and further reading.
Section A consists of a hundred pages on the background to, and further information on, autism spectrum disorders, whilst Section B contains very detailed medical and scientific alphabetical entries such as 22q13 Deletion Syndrome, CATCH 22, Joubert Syndrome and Trichothiodystophy (TTD). Each entry, which is consecutively numbered, consists of the name of the genetic factor, aka, gene loci, key ASD references, how common is.., main clinical features, differential diagnosis, treatment and management, further information and support. The reader would require a high level of scientific understanding to be able to know what to look for and then interpret the entry once found!
Section C consists of some promising developments, which would be helpful for those with ASD children, but its highly technical nature reduces its effectiveness. The final Section D contains the Appendices including full contact details of international autism support groups, relevant clinical journal titles and a list of clinical conditions. The glossary of terms comes in very handy for deciphering the technical jargon used in the book. An extensive alphabetical list of references from pages 426‐94 offers users up‐to‐date books, paper and online journal articles from a mixture of British, European and American authors ranging from the international Journal of Medical Genetics to the more specialist Cleft Palate‐Craniofacial Journal. The one drawback of this comprehensive list is that the typeface is so small a magnifying glass might be required by some to read the entries.
Is this book really meant for parents and carers of children? No seems the immediate answer as it is so scientific and full of technical jargon. The actual readership is more likely to be those already working in the ASD field, such as psychologists, medical clinicians, academics, researchers and teachers. Parents and carers of children with ASD would be advised to read first one of the many good informative books on the subject such as Autism and Asperger's Syndrome (Baron‐Cohen, 2008). Aitken's work is indeed a leading work in this subject insofar as there are only sections on autism and genetic factors in a few other recent works, as for example Barnes (2010), Roth and Rezaie (2011) and an earlier PhD thesis by Barnby (2003).
Although the paperback is priced reasonably at £19.99 and would be affordable for parents and carers, it would make more sense if it was purchased for university and specialist medical libraries for academics, researchers and students, as well as parents wanting to know more.
