DSM-V removes Asperger's in favour of ASD for all

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Are people for or against this change?

There's not an option for my opinion in the pool, because I say I don't really care.

I believe the opposition is Autistic people being autistic and not liking change.

Do you think it depends how attached you are to a specific label? For example some people might feel attached to their diagnosis of Asperger's Syndrome and would prefer not to be re-labelled as ASD, while others may not think it's an issue because the name or label is not that important to them.

I'm curious about why the change was made. The psychologist who diagnosed me just three years ago had told me to be aware of the difference between autism and Asperger's Disorder so I'm not misinformed about what I have. If they are now one and the same diagnostic criteria, what does that say about their differences? Is the cause the same? the biology behind it? It's confusing to me and I just want to understand what psychological principles warranted the change.

As an adult I don't care.

For children I do, because these school don't want to teach aspies as it is. this will make it harder to point out they are suffering.
I would love to see Visual Spatial disorder go in.

But considering most humans are visual spatial and less Auditory learners I guess that would be a weird thing to do.

I'm not autistic, so that's not it for me.

I think what we call "autism" is already multiple different conditions. I don't see how getting less specific will help. Especially since I think all research related to autism is clouded by treating autism as a homogenous group. It's not. It confounds the results and yields many of them meaningless when I think we would find meaning if only we could separate one type from another.

So I see it as one step back.

I agree that autism is multiple different - overlapping - conditions, but AS, autism, and PDD-NOS did not really describe any true divide between those conditions. I know people diagnosed with every label on the spectrum who are more similar to each other than they are to others who have the same diagnoses they do.

The new criteria also does not treat everyone on the spectrum as a homogeneous group. It actually provides a better framework for charting distinctions with any given diagnosis. It's not perfect, but I think it is better than the DSM-IV.

Asperger's Syndrome has always been autism...its your psychologist who is misinformed if he thinks they were ever 'seperate' disorders. Aspergers syndrome was already considered to be an autism spectrum disorder....the new DSM is just making that more clear as well as the fact its a 'spectrum' so there are differing levels of severity.

Autism research studies do target different subgroups for cognitive eggsperiments. There are criteria for IQ scores and childhood language development and other factors to be included in specific studies. Sometimes, the study is focused on HFA adults with history of language delay in childhood. Sometimes, the study is focused on AS adults with no history of language delay and no echolalia, pronoun reversal, or idiosyncratic language. Sometimes, the high-functioning groups are mixed. Sometimes, the study is focused on non-verbal children. The results can be meaningful for the subgroups. Sometimes, different subgroups are compared. Sometimes, the different compared subgroups are not different diagnoses, but different subgroups of people with the same diagnosis, e.g. comparing VIQ < PIQ, VIQ = PIQ, VIQ > PIQ subgroups all with autism diagnosis.

It doesn't really matter. I do get where they are going with this. But I still prefer the AS label.

I know that people with "autism" tend to have abnormally large brains as well as an underdeveloped cerebellum early in life. Does that apply to those with AS, or high-functioning autism? It's those kinds of things that I'm wondering about.

double post.

Last edited by Sweetleaf on 08 Dec 2012, 9:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I couldn't say...also though I highly doubt most or even the majority of people with autism underwent a brain-scan early in life so I doubt they could even have any accurate idea as to how many people with autism that applies to. Does the abnormally large brain and underdeveleped cerebellum remain or is it just obvious in early life?

For Aspies I think the change is good, but for people with PDD-NOS I think the made a grave error. Most people with PDD-NOS will not meet the requirement for ASD, but instead will have other new diagnosis such as communications disorder and intellectual disability. Since people with PDD-NOS are often included in the Autism statistics, once DSM-5 is released we should see the number of people with Autism plunge.