Autism Research: Where Does the Arab World Stand?

Abstract

This review presents an examination of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) research in the Arab world. A total of 142 publications were identified, spanning a period from 1992 to January 2014. The average number of country-specific publications per year is 5.7 articles. Most publications were produced by Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Oman over the last few years—these addressed research areas related biology, risk factors, and diagnosis. Over a third of the publications included funding acknowledgments while several were published in journals with an impact factor ≥ 5.0. These findings suggest that ASD in the Arab world is a young but rapidly growing field. The status of the field is presented, and implications for the future are provided.