Impacts of Early Interventions in the Treatment of Autism Spectrum Disorder from a Medical Perspective

Abstract

Introduction:The autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) manifests itself from the earliest age, often before the age of 3 until adulthood.The early diagnosis of the disorder is essential both for families and for people with ASD, as it allows guiding treatments and interventions.Objective: To map and analyze the scientific literature regarding the impact of early intervention in the treatment of the autistic spectrum from the medical perspective.Method: This is research of the integrative review type and supported by the adapted PRISMA protocol, in which the online search occurred through the SciELO, Medline/Pubmed, LILACS and Epistemonikos databases, and the temporal cut-off established for the search of the studies was from 2012 to March 2022. Results:The results showed that of the total of 22 of the selected studies, 81.8% were published between 2020 to 2022, showing that the database with the largest scientific collection regarding TEA was sciELO(50%). As most of the studies were Brazilian, the dominant language was Portuguese; however, the studies with more robust designs were published in the United States of America. Conclusion:It was concluded from the scientific literature that there is no early pharmacological intervention that can treat ASD; these alternatives are only to minimize the clinical picture related to hyperactivity, aggressiveness, and other more severe alterations.What do exist are early behavioral interventions, which are considered the gold standard for symptom control as well as for optimizing the treatment of the person with ASD.