Brief report: autism and herpes simplex encephalitis.

It is now generally accepted that autism is a behavioral syndrome with an underlying organic pathology. It can be associated with a variety of disorders affecting the central nervous system, such as encephalitis. DeLong, Bean, and Brown (1981) described three children, ages between 5 and 11 years, who developed acute encephalitic illness accompanied by autistic features that resolved after clinical recovery. One of the patients had high serum herpes simplex titers, and a computerized tomography (CT) scan of the head revealed an extensive lesion of the temporal lobes, mainly on the left side. The other two patients had normal CT scans, and no etiological agent was defined. Gillberg (1986) described the case of a 14-year-old girl who developed "typical" autistic syndrome following an attack of herpes simplex encephalitis. The CT of the head showed widespread bilateral destruction of brain parenchyma and the temporal lobes, with some medial involvement of the lower parts of the parietal lobes. The autistic symptoms persisted long after the acute symptoms of herpes encephalitis, such as fever and alteration of consciousness, subsided. All the above cases met the criteria for autism except the typical age of onset. For example, DeLong et al.'s cases ranged in age from 5 to 11