the failure of institutional treatment to cure most mental illnesses,[6] and the advent of drugs such as Thorazine[7] prompted many hospitals to begin discharging patients in large numbers, in the beginning of the deinstitutionalization movement (the process of gradually moving people from inpatient care in mental hospitals, to outpatient care).
One of the first studies to address the issue of institutionalization directly was British psychiatrist Russell Barton's 1959 book Institutional Neurosis,[9] which claimed that many symptoms of mental illness (specifically, psychosis) were not physical brain defects as once thought, but were consequences of institutions' "stripping" (a term probably first used in this context by Erving Goffman[10]) away the "psychological crutches" of their patients.
Research reveals that the post-institutional syndrome occurring in these children gave rise to symptoms of autistic behavior.
Studies done on eight Romanian adoptees living in the Netherlands revealed that about one third of the children exhibited behavioral and communication problems resembling that of autism.
[12] Individuals who suffer from institutional syndrome can face several kinds of difficulties upon returning to the community.