The Gestalt of functioning in autism spectrum disorder: Results of the international conference to develop final consensus International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health core sets.

The article reports category selection and consensus voting, not patient outcomes after using the core sets. The final decisions were made by 20 experts. Individuals with autism and family members were involved in preparatory studies but were not expressly recruited for the conference, and only one expert was a mother of a child with autism. Some regions and professions were underrepresented. Few PTs and social workers participated, no nurses were present, and some parts of the world were better represented than others. The full methods and data of the four preparatory studies are not reported here; they are described in separate publications. Some environmental factor categories are broad, such as immediate family, extended family and people in positions of authority, and the paper says they may not be detailed enough for specific intervention planning.

The supplied text says funding was received for the research, authorship and publication, and that the development of the core sets was supported, but it does not name the funder. Authors declared no conflict related to this article. Sven Bölte disclosed past work as author, consultant or lecturer for Shire, Medice, Roche, Eli Lilly, Prima Psychiatry, GLGroup, System Analytic, Kompetento, Expo Medica and Prophase, and royalties for textbooks and diagnostic tools from Huber/Hogrefe, Kohlhammer and UTB. Petrus J de Vries disclosed steering committee and advisory board roles for Novartis-funded clinical trials and guideline development in tuberous sclerosis complex. The other named co-authors declared no conflict related to this work.

Do not read the core sets as proof that any treatment improves functioning in autism. They are expert-selected categories for describing functioning and environment, not tested interventions.