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Autism's mysterious, complex past

Courtesy of www.dukemedicine.org

April is Autism Awareness Month. It’s a condition that’s much examined by the medical community, but still elusive in its causes and treatments. 

Dr. Jeffrey Baker, a pediatrician and medical historian, wrote a historical perspective on autism that was published in the New England Journal of Medicine last fall.

He says that the number of cases of autism started to increase in the 1980s.

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