Just posting a link to one more Professor Hastings piece - a speech he gave on how the stress of having an autistic child affects mothers/families, particularly where the child also has learning difficulties and challenging behaviours. The one other syndrome causing equivlent stress was Angelman syndrome. Prof Hastings ends with a plea for public services to take note of the mental and emotional stresses on mothers in particular, and to offer behavioural support for the children - as it is often the challenging behaviours, not just the autism, which are the greatest stressors. If you click on his name you can view the actual speech. I hope the powers-that-be are listening!
www.cerebra.org.uk/english/whatson/annualconference/conference2012/pages/annualconference2012.aspx