General practitioners must acquire skills to communicate with child with Autism Spectrum Disorder to regain their values and role in the follow-up – phenomenological study

International audienceABSTRACTObjective: To understand the perceptions and attitudes of general practitioners (GPs) regardingchildren with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).Design: Phenomenological qualitative study.Setting: Three focus groups, clinical settings.Subjects: French GPs.Main outcome measures: 22 GPs took part in the study divided among three focus groups.They were volunteers to participate. Data were transcribed verbatim and analysed using agrounded theory data analysis, completed with a semiopragmatic analysis.Results: Representing autism as a strange disorder in the doctor–patient relationship, GPs perceivea loss of sensory contact with the child with ASD that prevents the usual professional relationshipbetween doctor and patient. They disengage themselves from monitoring the subject,concentrating on supporting the family. According to them, their role was to refer the patientto a specialist in the case of clinical intuition, but they have several reasons to give themselvestime, all the more so because once the diagnosis is made, they lose sight of the patient andtheir place in the care pathway. GPs expressed the need to acquire skills and strategies to communicatewith the autistic child to recover their role and values.Conclusion: GPs are disconcerted by the idea of communicating with children with ASD, as ittakes them out of their usual professional benchmarks. They need communication tools thatenable them to regain their role and relational value of the patient-centred approach. Beyondthis, the question of the ‘ethics of care’ of the patient with a joint attention disorder is raised.KEY POINTS GPs are disconcerted with the idea of communicating with children with ASD. GPs need communication tools that enable them to regain their role and relational value ofthe patient-centred approach. The question of the ‘ethics of care’ of the patient with a joint attention disorder is raised