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Implications of an Autism Spectrum Disorder Diagnosis: An Interview Study of How Physicians Experience the Diagnosis in a Young Child

Clinicians are significant translators and interpreters towards parents of the abundant literature on autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, how clinicians experience and view ASD and an ASD diagnosis is not well known. Sixteen physicians working with young children with a (presumed) diagnosis of...

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Autores principales: Jacobs, Delphine, Steyaert, Jean, Dierickx, Kris, Hens, Kristien
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6213203/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30322100
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jcm7100348
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author Jacobs, Delphine
Steyaert, Jean
Dierickx, Kris
Hens, Kristien
author_facet Jacobs, Delphine
Steyaert, Jean
Dierickx, Kris
Hens, Kristien
author_sort Jacobs, Delphine
collection PubMed
description Clinicians are significant translators and interpreters towards parents of the abundant literature on autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, how clinicians experience and view ASD and an ASD diagnosis is not well known. Sixteen physicians working with young children with a (presumed) diagnosis of ASD participated in a semi-structured interview. They described their professional view on ASD and an ASD diagnosis, and how they experienced its use in their clinical practice. Interpretative phenomenological analysis of the data revealed two main topics about physicians’ experiences: how they view ASD and an ASD diagnosis, and how they experience the implications of an ASD diagnosis. The latter topic comprised three themes: (1) the ASD diagnosis leads to a particular treatment trajectory and services; (2) ambivalence about how the ASD diagnosis impacts parents and child; and (3) psycho-relational functions of the ASD diagnosis. Physicians feel that some doubts and questions are inevitable when dealing clinically with ASD and an ASD diagnosis. They also perceive that there are certain risks associated with assigning the categorical ASD diagnosis to a young child. Altogether however, ASD is perceived by physicians as a useful and valuable diagnosis both because of treatment related consequences and of several psycho-relational implications.
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spelling pubmed-62132032018-11-02 Implications of an Autism Spectrum Disorder Diagnosis: An Interview Study of How Physicians Experience the Diagnosis in a Young Child Jacobs, Delphine Steyaert, Jean Dierickx, Kris Hens, Kristien J Clin Med Article Clinicians are significant translators and interpreters towards parents of the abundant literature on autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, how clinicians experience and view ASD and an ASD diagnosis is not well known. Sixteen physicians working with young children with a (presumed) diagnosis of ASD participated in a semi-structured interview. They described their professional view on ASD and an ASD diagnosis, and how they experienced its use in their clinical practice. Interpretative phenomenological analysis of the data revealed two main topics about physicians’ experiences: how they view ASD and an ASD diagnosis, and how they experience the implications of an ASD diagnosis. The latter topic comprised three themes: (1) the ASD diagnosis leads to a particular treatment trajectory and services; (2) ambivalence about how the ASD diagnosis impacts parents and child; and (3) psycho-relational functions of the ASD diagnosis. Physicians feel that some doubts and questions are inevitable when dealing clinically with ASD and an ASD diagnosis. They also perceive that there are certain risks associated with assigning the categorical ASD diagnosis to a young child. Altogether however, ASD is perceived by physicians as a useful and valuable diagnosis both because of treatment related consequences and of several psycho-relational implications. MDPI 2018-10-12 /pmc/articles/PMC6213203/ /pubmed/30322100 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jcm7100348 Text en © 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Jacobs, Delphine
Steyaert, Jean
Dierickx, Kris
Hens, Kristien
Implications of an Autism Spectrum Disorder Diagnosis: An Interview Study of How Physicians Experience the Diagnosis in a Young Child
title Implications of an Autism Spectrum Disorder Diagnosis: An Interview Study of How Physicians Experience the Diagnosis in a Young Child
title_full Implications of an Autism Spectrum Disorder Diagnosis: An Interview Study of How Physicians Experience the Diagnosis in a Young Child
title_fullStr Implications of an Autism Spectrum Disorder Diagnosis: An Interview Study of How Physicians Experience the Diagnosis in a Young Child
title_full_unstemmed Implications of an Autism Spectrum Disorder Diagnosis: An Interview Study of How Physicians Experience the Diagnosis in a Young Child
title_short Implications of an Autism Spectrum Disorder Diagnosis: An Interview Study of How Physicians Experience the Diagnosis in a Young Child
title_sort implications of an autism spectrum disorder diagnosis: an interview study of how physicians experience the diagnosis in a young child
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6213203/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30322100
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/jcm7100348
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