Understanding general practitioners' knowledge, attitudes and experiences in the recognition and management of individuals on the autism spectrum

Background The general practitioner (GP) plays a key role in the identification and management of children, young people and adults on the autism spectrum. Yet there is a paucity of research on what GPs know about autism and... [ view full abstract ]

Background
The general practitioner (GP) plays a key role in the identification and management of children, young people and adults on the autism spectrum. Yet there is a paucity of research on what GPs know about autism and how confident they feel in making clinical decisions for their patients. We therefore conducted the first nationwide survey to address precisely these issues.

Methodology
An online survey was sent to registered GPs. The survey collected responses on participants’ (1) background, training and experience as a GP, (2) a 22-item knowledge of autism questionnaire and (3) a 14-item self-efficacy scale targeting GPs’ confidence in their abilities around the diagnosis and management of autism.

Results
304 participants completed all three parts of the survey. GPs generally scored highly on the knowledge of autism scale (mean=19.4 out of 22) – despite over one third (40%) reporting never having received formal training about autism. Nevertheless, participants reported limited confidence in their abilities to identify and manage their autistic patients, with many citing a number of barriers including unclear referral pathways and limited local support services.

Conclusions/Perspectives
Our findings underscore the need for improved local specialist service provision alongside clearer referral pathways for diagnosis as key priorities to improve both GPs’ confidence in caring for their autistic parents and autistic people’s experiences with GPs. Local clinical commissioning groups are best served to assist GPs in ensuring that they can reliably detect the condition and make appropriate provisions for support.

Disclosure of conflicts of interest: Liz Pellicano has received grant or research support from the UK’s Medical Research Council and Economic and Social Research Council, The Leverhulme Trust, the European Council, the... [ view full abstract ]

Disclosure of conflicts of interest: Liz Pellicano has received grant or research support from the UK’s Medical Research Council and Economic and Social Research Council, The Leverhulme Trust, the European Council, the Australian Research Council, the Nuffield Foundation, Research Autism, and the Waterloo Foundation.