They plan to delete Asperger from DSM 5

Post Reply New Topic

I believe DSM 5 comes around in 2010, and they plan to delete Asperger:
http://alexithymiaexchange.multiply.com/journal/item/18

I like the other idea, that we would all be diagnosed Atypical Class. Still, this idea came along in 2008 and they may have developed other ideas since then. They may have decided to just keep it in by now. I do not want the diagnosis to disappear--at all. This is why if any of us (including me) are currently seeing drs who doubt their original diagnosis should switch them. That's just my opinion. We should only see AS specialists when we can find them.

I'd prefer just about anything to Aspergers because so many people are ignorant and have no idea what it means and my son gets all the usual insults about 'arsebergers'. I chose HFA because at least people have generally heard of Autism. Aspergers is just too complex for some people to understand. The Psychologist at my sons school told him earlier this year that he was a narcissist I felt like slapping her silly If a psychologist doesn't get it, what hope is there for my son

I think the issue though is that the organizations providing services (namely schools here) need to hear certain words before providing the services. The idea of removing aspergers and calling autism autism all the way around is that autism is the word schools want to hear in order to provide the person with services that they need.

This is really a catch 22 situation here because obviously autism is a spectrum, not a he fits, she doesn't type diagnosis.

actually, they plan to give Asperger's Syndrome it's own V code.

This is how it is NOW.

299.00 Autistic Disorder
299.80 Pervasive Developmental Disorder, Not Otherwise Specified
299.80 Asperger's Disorder
299.80 Rett's Disorder
299.10 Childhood Disintegrative Disorder

DSM V proposes to give AS it's own code rather than sharing with the others on the same code. And it is due out in 2012.

I'd like them to keep it.

AS is not the same as just being HFA. Maybe it's a fine line, but I don't think most people would look at me and associate me with "autism" as it is classically understood.

But others of us could be poster children for high-functioning autism in an Asperger's-is-not-a-299-series-condition world. Not caricatures, but real faces of what laypeople with rudimantary knowledge might realistically expect adult HFA to look like. Anyone who knows me well would probably agree that it would be almost ludicrous to say, for example, that I am not autistic simply because (as best I can remember) I was able to use expressive language at age three. Even today, while well capable of speaking, I find thought organisation in general, and describing things like emotions in particular, to be quite difficult, and I am conspicuously non-verbal in many situations where most people would be much chattier.

Having been diagnosed in Europe, outside of DSM territory, the diagnostic decision tree was along these lines: first establish that you have any degree of clinically significant autistic characteristics (i.e. you are on the spectrum); then whether you have a sufficiently complete profile of impairments (i.e. you are autistic) or not (you have "atypical autism", roughly equivalent to PDD-NOS); finally, if so inclined, which broad category of autism will we say that you have (Asperger's or Kanner's [HFA or LFA]). Even the diagnosing professionals will tell you that the last step is somewhat arbitrary for high-functioning people, while the first steps are much more serious. [I don't know where Rett's and CDD fit into this scheme, as they were not relevant to my assessment.] My assessment report has page after page of discussion of evidence that I am autistic, and one sentence arbitrarily kicking me over into the Aspie bucket. So, as confirmed by my assessment, I consider myself autistic first; the subgroup to me is generally irrelevant.

I would prefer it to be classified as HFA or some equivalent term. I normally just tell people I'm autistic.

I may be classified as NT is said deletion occurs.

There's a newer update in regards to such, and it's supposedly:

ASD:
Severe
Moderate
Less severe

Subclinical ASD
Normal variant personality

Thanks for clarifying this, but insurance often won't pay for V codes and they are not qualifiers for disability payments. V codes are for non-heavy diagnoses, such as "parent-child conflict," etc. that usually require counseling and no more.

(V codes are listed in the back of the DSM)

Now, if it gets its own regular code and doesn't share it with PPD and Rett's, now that's good news!

Source?

See this.

To add, I really like this statement:

If you wanted to know my source (did you?) it's from my master's in psychology. I learned that in school. I need clarification about what KIND of code will be used--V or regular?

Agreed. I feel the same. However,



this disturbs me deeply. Does this mean just because a revised Diagnostic Manual comes out, anyone not Dxd with Kanner's will be kicked to the curb and homeless?