"It's now apparent that some have a very good prognosis, " said the NIMH's Dr. Insel.

WSJ: Who Can Outgrow or Recover From Autism

"The DSM is the best we've got for clinical care, " said Thomas Insel, head of the National Institute of Mental Health.

WSJ: Revised Psychiatric Manual Faces Mixed Reviews

Dr. Insel wasn't involved in the study.

WSJ: Who Can Outgrow or Recover From Autism

The work "provides convincing evidence there is a group of people who certainly have all of the symptoms of an autism-spectrum disorder when they're young, who look like they have no symptoms later, " said Thomas Insel, head of the National Institute of Mental Health, which funded the work.

WSJ: Who Can Outgrow or Recover From Autism

One alternative is a proposal that the NIMH has been developing for three years, called the Research Domain Criteria, which will move toward funding research that examines core biological features of illness shared by several disorders, such as problems in brain circuitry, rather than the current practice of focusing on symptoms specific to one disorder, according to Dr. Insel.

WSJ: Revised Psychiatric Manual Faces Mixed Reviews