Kalawatia M, Lucke-Wold B, Mehrunkar A. Supporting parents in autism care. World J Psychiatry 2025; 15(5): 103575 [DOI: 10.5498/wjp.v15.i5.103575]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Brandon Lucke-Wold, MD, PhD, Department of Neurosurgery, Lillian S. Wells, University of Florida, 1505 SW Archer Road, Gainesville, FL 32608, United States. brandon.lucke-wold@neurosurgery.ufl.edu
Research Domain of This Article
Psychiatry
Article-Type of This Article
Letter to the Editor
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Mihit Kalawatia, Department of Neurosurgery, Rajarshi Chattrapati Shahu Maharaj Government Medical College, Kolhapur 416003, Mahārāshtra, India
Brandon Lucke-Wold, Department of Neurosurgery, Lillian S. Wells, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32608, United States
Aabhali Mehrunkar, Department of Psychiatry, Rajarshi Chattrapati Shahu Maharaj Government Medical College, Kolhapur 416003, Mahārāshtra, India
Co-first authors: Mihit Kalawatia and Brandon Lucke-Wold.
Author contributions: Kalawatia M contributed to the manuscript with conceptualization, literature review, data collection, manuscript drafting, and critical revision; Kalawatia M and Lucke-Wold B contributed equally to this article, they are the co-first authors of this manuscript; Mehrunkar A contributed to the manuscript with data analysis, visualization, manuscript editing, and proofreading; Lucke-Wold B contributed to the manuscript with methodology, supervision, final review, manuscript touch-ups, and project supervision; and all authors have read and approved the final version of the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Brandon Lucke-Wold, MD, PhD, Department of Neurosurgery, Lillian S. Wells, University of Florida, 1505 SW Archer Road, Gainesville, FL 32608, United States. brandon.lucke-wold@neurosurgery.ufl.edu
Received: November 25, 2024 Revised: March 9, 2025 Accepted: March 18, 2025 Published online: May 19, 2025 Processing time: 158 Days and 1.6 Hours
Abstract
Autism spectrum disorder is a developmental disorder impacting a child’s social interactions, behaviors, and communication skills. One of the crucial aspects of autism care, which is often overlooked, is the parent’s mental health status while trying to improve and overcome challenges faced by their child. A study by Lu et al examined the effectiveness of remote family psychological support courses on the mental health status of parents having children with autism spectrum disorder. It was found that the integration of these remote psychological courses with conventional care had a positive impact on the parents by reducing their stress levels, leading to an increase in their competence, and hence they could engage effectively in child therapy. However, a long-term study is necessary to assess whether these interventions have a sustained effect. The study emphasizes the need for developing such culturally sensitive intervention models on a global scale, making them accessible to all and improving autism care support.
Core Tip: Integration of remote psychological interventions into traditional autism care leads to the positive impact of stress-level reduction and increased active engagement of parents in childcare, having a positive impact on a child’s developmental outcomes. There is a need for culturally sensitive and easily accessible interventions on a global scale to have a widespread impact on diverse populations. Therefore, moving forward, the focus should be on scaling interventions globally while ensuring long-term effectiveness through digital adaptation and continuous monitoring.
