[Care continuity for patients with autism spectrum disorder during transition from childhood to adulthood]

Autism is a common and complex neurodevelopmental disorder. Clinically, autism appears as a spectrum, with a variety of severity in the core impairments in social interactions, communications, and repetitive behaviors, with or without mental retardation. As patients grow up, the difficulty they are confronted in everyday life is constantly changing and challenging. Child psychiatrists and pediatricians are familiar with the common symptoms, behavioral characteristics, and associated disorders of autism spectrum disorder(ASD) and are required to give timely advices to a patient and family members how to cope with problems they have. Because the limited number of specialists in Japan, practicing physicians are required to be participate in supporting ASD patients. In this article, we give general physicians a brief introduction to ASD core symptoms in adolescent and adulthood.