Autistic disorder associated with congenital HIV infection

Although autistic disorder is rare, we identified three children with this syndrome in a sample of 286 children with congenital HIV infection. The prevalence of autistic disorder was thus greater than expected from epidemiological data. The present article describes the clinical manifestations and course of development of the three children. Etiologic heterogeneity in autism is assumed by most investigators because of the occurrence of autistic disorder in persons with a variety of other disorders (e. g. viral or genetic). We hypothesize that there is a complex relation between congenital HIV infection and austistic disorder and suggest the need for systematic investigations of larger series of HIV positive children.