Is Aspergers trendy?

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I do think that Asperger's has become a "trendy" diagnosis, meaning that I think it's probably being over-diagnosed. I do think anyone who's the slightest bit quirky or overly intellectual is being pegged as AS. I was born in the late '80s, when AS wasn't known about at all, and I know that I would have been diagnosed as a preschooler had I grown up nowadays. But I'm actually happy that I grew up when I did and wasn't diagnosed until I was in college. Sure, I wish I could have had accommodations growing up, but not having them forced me to have to adapt to a neurotypical world and develop coping strategies. Plus, when I was younger, my deficits were more overshadowed by my "giftedness", but the older I get, the more "abnormal" I look compared to my peers (e.g., not being able to drive, not having romantic relationships, etc.). So, I think my diagnosis as an adult probably was more valid than it would have been as a young child.

I put up some statistics before about outcome for adults with ASD. Besides the fact that 1/3 fewer young adults with ASD have paid employment and much fewer have full time jobs than young adults with reading disabilities, intellectual disabilities and disabilities in general (source in my earlier post) this study shows that 70% of kids with ASD have a co-morbid psychiatric disorder and 41% have two or more: link

There's another study showing a similar rate (65-70%) of having one other co-occuring psychiatric in adults with ASD. I'm looking for it now.

Lugnegard et al. assessed comorbidity of psychopathology in young adults with Asperger's syndrome. They reported comorbid depression in 70% and anxiety in 50% of persons who were assessed [14] . Overlap between autism and ADHD is also common [15] . Kochhar et al. found ADHD to be more common in persons with ASD than the general population [16] . Murray reported that over half of individuals with ASD also met criteria for ADHD From:
link

The second study is actually quite interesting, it talks about differential diagnosis. I agree with btbnnyr that we need more objective measures but until we have them it's important for experts to know what traits distinguish them that we know of, for example:

Hypervigilant attention and internal distractibility are more common to ASD, while ADHD is generally marked by a lack of focus and distractibility by external stimuli. If symptoms are accurately identified and both disorders are in fact present, treatments for ADHD can be effective additions to interventions for ASD [25] . Differential diagnosis and accurately diagnosing similar but distinct comorbid disorders are critical in developing and implementing effective treatments for affected individuals.

It also talks about an ADHD/ASD co- morbid measure, like the ADOS and other ASD measures that's being developed , and it talks about bio-markers (like EEG) being investigated too.

Here's the citation info to access it just because I'm not sure the link will work for you:
Title: Differential diagnosis and comorbidity: distinguishing autism from other mental health issues
Author(s): Johnny L Matson and Lindsey W Williams
Source: Neuropsychiatry. 3.2 (Apr. 2013): p233.
Document Type: Article
DOI: http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.torontopubliclibrary.ca

An interesting trend that I noticed in the past couple of years is increasing differentiation between idiopathic autism and autism caused by disorders like Fragile X, Rett Syndrome, TSC, etc. Fragile X gets a lot of attention, because it is most prevalent single-gene disorder causing autism, but research increasingly points towards Fragile X caused autism as not autism at all, with more anxiety-driven source of autistic-like behaviors that are milder than autistic behaviors in idiopathic autism. As research progresses, definition of autism will change to remove these genetic disorders from spectrum, which may be 10-15% of spectrum currently.

Yeah, it's interesting. I read an article about that quite recently. I think this link will work. link

There was an interesting study on ADHD diagnosis where researchers gave a bunch of child descriptions (boy and girl) to hundreds of clinicians and asked them to diagnose a disorder. One of the descriptions fulfilled all ADHD criteria, which were mentioned as being fulfilled, and one fulfilled core criteria but not age criterion or symptoms occur in more than one setting criterion, and one didn't fulfill core criteria, and one didn't mention ADHD criteria but was a vague description of generalized anxiety disorder. 20% of clinicians made false positive diagnosis for last three combined, and 8% false negative for the ADHD description, and this difference was significant, suggesting overdiagnosis of ADHD. This difference only occurred in boy descriptions, suggesting ADHD overdiagnosis specifically in boys. The study suggests that clinicians didn't follow DSM or ICD criteria for ADHD. Possibly they are not following criteria for ASD either, and part of the male/female ratio in ASD is overdiagnosis of boys.

Well... you are nice. But... I think that if there is over diagnosis it is because it is WORK, daily bread, and sells a lot of time and drugs, for many many people. When most people go to a doctor, they believe what the doctor says. Most doctors make a diagnosis and then offer a prescription that has the patient coming back, and often taking drugs too. So they have to talk about the drug's effects too. I would think that very few people who show up at a psychiatrist or psychologist's office who get turned away with having no problem. "Yer fine! Go have a good time!" No... I don't think so.

It could be.

am not trying to make a fuss out of nothing but temple grandin isnt aspie;she is a high functioning classic autistic woman who happens to be gifted in IQ;this is why most aspies seem to tag her as aspie when classic autism allows for the lowest to the highest possible IQ.

no pyschologist using the ICD woud diagnose her aspie now with her developmental history in mind as her significant speech impairment woud have gone against the criteria, she also presents with a lot more classic autism behavior than what aspergers does,specialists of mine have been to some of her UK seminars.

I have. Repeatedly by psychologists, psychiatrists and my even own doctor. Took a long time for them to understand how badly I am coping and that my struggles are VERY real.

Although, I do think more boys actually have autism than girls and that there are genetic protective factors for girls. So, I think the disparity between boys and girls with ASD is real and not an artifact of bias and or misdiagnosis but that those things could contribute some to it and make it seem a bit bigger than it actually is.

I don't know if you have seen this website, she describes some traits that are common in girls (and I think many guys also have these traits), look at her list of female aspergers traits if you haven't, it is interesting.

http://help4aspergers.com/

^^^
I looked at the site and the list of female asperger's traits. I have seen that list on another thread. I think it's too broad and many of the lists of traits for girls or differences between boys and girls with ASD that I've seen are too broad and refer to some general differences between the sexes and general qualities of girls (with or without ASD).

*ETA - We did discuss these lists earlier in this thread but this is such a long thread so here's what I said:

"Yeah, I hate those "traits of girls with Asperger's" lists. Now, every girl who has one or tow intense interests and is passionate about social justice and fairness will think they have ASD. Nearly everyone in my Library Science program could be diagnosed based on those criteria."

and btbnnyr said :

"I also don't like the female asperger traits.
They are vague and useless."

Devil Kisses wrote a long reply about the lists and other things. It's on page 2.

You mentioned that the female aspie traits on the list are too broad. I don't know if it is true, but is it true that females on the autism spectrum are usually more severely affected than males? I've heard of a local female aspie in the area I was growing up in, she had an intense obsession with star wars and she couldn't even dress herself. The few male aspies I've met are independent, despite the high unemployment rate. Note I don't mean to sound sexist, I'm not, just trying to learn more.

Well you are entitled to your opinion (why am I not surprised that we, once more, disagree? lol). But personally I love that list, I think that in girls the traits are sometimes more discret, and sometimes different, than in boys (eventho the list can also applies to boys). These are traits that Rudy Simone has noticed were common in many girls who are autistic. And really doubt anyone will look at the list, notice that they have one or 2 of the traits, and think "I'm autistic". Obviously none of these traits taken separately will necessarily indicate anything, just like none of the typical Autism traits taken separately necessarily indicates Autism. It is when it adds-up that it begins to mean something. Myself, apart from other issues, I have about 95% of the traits on that list.

Back when I was first diagnosed, I hated how it was not well known and how not many people had it and I felt all alone, now it seems like tons of people have it and it's now well known an so easy to get diagnosed with after one session or after a couple of minutes and guess what? I still hate it. Just imagine if my school counselor had actually told me back then "then when it does get well known by the public and you hear about more people having it, you will hate it too and wish it didn't get so popular in the media."

Rudy Simone is not a professional in the field, she has no scientific or scholarly background as far as I know. Many of the traits listed there are vague and could be interpreted in a way that could apply to people in the general population, in a way that I don't think the DSM criteria could especially with the impairment requirements.