In 2012, the President of the Republic, François Hollande, declared autism a “great national cause”. Twelve years later, many gray areas still need to be resolved. In “Health in Questions”, an update on this issue with Professor Catherine Barthélémy, president of the Academy of Medicine, at the origin of major developments in the management of this disorder.
Professor Catherine Barthélémy is a personality who disrupts habits and certainties. Habits because since the beginning of this year she has been the new president of the Academy of Medicine, a prestigious institution which waited more than 200 years to place a woman at its head.
And certainties because, in her specialty as a child psychiatrist, almost 40 years ago now, she broke a taboo on a disorder that affects 700,000 people in France, autism.
The neurological origins of autism
She was the first, it was in 1985 during a congress in Tours, to develop the theory of its neurological origins by confronting her colleagues trained in psychoanalysis and stuck on the idea that this disorder was triggered by an emotional problem. with the mother. Suffice to say that if the latter booed her, thousands of mothers on the other hand, feeling guilty for years, can send her a huge thank you!
A turning point in autism research
This essential turning point in research into autism and its treatment would alone justify his election to the presidency of the Academy of Medicine. It is in fact thanks to her work that we know today that an autistic child detected early can see their life change if they benefit from appropriate treatment, it is because she was able to combine the families of these children through her research that she managed to explore new and unpublished avenues and broke the image of a shameful illness sometimes placed on this disorder.
There is still much to discover about autism, which manifests itself in multiple ways. But his responsibilities at the head of the Academy of Medicine can only strengthen hopes. She reaffirmed her commitment a few years ago when receiving an Honorary Prize that INSERM had just awarded her, and it is very clear: “I am a doctor, I want to heal, to help people. people “.
