AGENCY FOR STRATEGIC INITIATIVES, RUSSIAN VENTURE COMPANY, THE RUSSIAN NEWS & INFORMATION AGENCY RIA NOVOSTI, Autism Research Institute (USA), MANAGEMENT COMPANY «SBERINVEST», CHARITY FOUNDATION «OUT», AUTISM CHALLENGES CENTER, PROFESSIONAL COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE «PREVENTIVE MEDICINE»

Dear colleagues!
Moscow first international conference on autism and autism related problems will take place on April 19-20 of 2013. This conference is conceived not only as an event helping to exchange professional experience, but also as an attempt to change the state of affairs around this serious social and medical problem, left neglected here in Russia.

Introducing to autism.
The term itself unifies a wide spectrum of diseases, related to developmental and psychiatric disorders according to ICD-10. The disease is a development neural disorder.

Since there is still little known about the actual causes and mechanism of development of autism related diseases, there are no objective criteria, as well as no laboratory methods of diagnostics. The diagnosis is usually based on inspection and dynamic observation of a patient, being done by a number of professionals (speech therapists, neurologists, psychologists and psychiatrists), it is also frequently based on information, provided by parents and the results of psychological tests and scales, assessing cognitive and behavioral disorders.

Nowadays, even in view of absence of official statistics, it is evident that the number of children with autism (aged from 2 up to 16 years old) in Russia is exceeding 300 000 of people. Despite the numbers, this part of society is hardly having any conventional representation neither in practice and medical science nor in educational or governmental and social institutional field.

Biomedical aspects of autism also create a lot of specific problems.Nowadaysin Russia despite the growing awareness of autism all around the world, this disorder is still associated exclusively with the field of psychiatry. This point of view is contrary to the majority of scientific research results of the past two decades, but the research of that kind primarily comes from abroad, while in Russia inappropriate diagnostic and therapeutic methods are still a common problem. Hence the system simply depraves thousands of possibly adapted children from their right to be objectively diagnosed and treated.

Main targets and goals of a conference

1. Autism epidemic - myth or reality. Social and economic aspects of autism
2. Search for clinical procedure for diagnosing autism,. Potential for biological markers
3. Latest therapeutic approaches in the field of autistic spectrum disorders, trainings, seminars with leading experts
4. Autistic spectrum disorders from the point of genetics and epigenetics
5. Autism and behavioral science
6. Autism and neuroscience

At the conference Russian innovations and achievements in biomedical science that help resolving variety of issues in the field of Autism will be presented and their implementation into international practice discussed.

The conference undoubtedly is a perfect tool for experiences and knowledge exchange by the international professional community.

Workgroups will be formed at the conference to support implementation of international research and clinical projects.

Conference is set to become a platform for building collaborations in the field of Autism among experts in variety of disciplines.

This conference’s educational mission will allow bringing Autism forth our of silence which will allow to incorporate into clinical practice already existing methods and develop further research.

Conference coverage is provided by the major Russian International News Agency "RIA Novosty”.

We hope to see you in Moscow.