whirlingmind wrote:
Nittrus wrote:
whirlingmind wrote:
Nittrus wrote:
the now invalid diagnosis AS (December 1st 2012 onward = no aspergers only ASD which so many seem to have not heard about, sorry I like to remain factual best I can).
Only in USA (and any other countries using the DSM, if there are any). In the UK we follow the IDC-10 and Asperger's is still a valid diagnosis.
Also UK and EU and Australia doctors who follow the DSM there which is quite a few.
That is according to news that I have read and a statement by the APA.
There are of course other standardized manuals from other organizations but the APA is considered the largest and most respected generally speaking and is not just in the USA. It still may exist but for how long until they follow suit?
Quote:
ICD vs. DSM
October 2009, Vol 40, No. 9
Print version: page 63
What is the difference between the ICD and DSM?
The ICD is a core function of the World Health Organization, spelled out in its constitution and ratified by all 193 WHO member countries. The ICD has existed for more than a century, and became WHO's responsibility when it was founded in 1948 as an agency of the United Nations. Before 1980, psychiatric diagnostic systems reflected the dominant psychoanalytic ideas of the time, emphasizing the role of experience, downplaying biology.
"The American Psychiatric Association can really be credited with a revolution in psychiatric nosology with the publication of DSM-III by introducing a descriptive nosological system based on co-occurring clusters of symptoms," said WHO psychologist Geoffrey Reed, PhD.
There was very little international participation in the DSM-III, but at the time it may have been impossible to make such a big shift at the international level, he explained. As a result, DSM-III and ICD-8 (the version in effect at the time) were quite different from one another but as the descriptive phenomenological approach to diagnose mental disorders became dominant, the DSM and ICD have become very similar, partly because of collaborative agreements between the two organizations.
Still, there is widespread sentiment that it is not helpful to the field to have two separate classification systems for mental disorders. Many important distinctions between the two systems remain, Reed said:
The ICD is produced by a global health agency with a constitutional public health mission, while the DSM is produced by a single national professional association.
WHO's primary focus for the mental and behavioral disorders classification is to help countries to reduce the disease burden of mental disorders. ICD's development is global, multidisciplinary and multilingual; the primary constituency of the DSM is U.S. psychiatrists.
The ICD is approved by the World Health Assembly, composed of the health ministers of all 193 WHO member countries; the DSM is approved by the assembly of the American Psychiatric Association, a group much like APA's Council of Representatives.
The ICD is distributed as broadly as possible at a very low cost, with substantial discounts to low-income countries, and available free on the Internet; the DSM generates a very substantial portion of the American Psychiatric Association's revenue, not only from sales of the book itself, but also from related products and copyright permissions for books and scientific articles.
Will the DSM be superseded by the ICD? There is little justification for maintaining the DSM as a separate diagnostic system from the ICD in the long run, particularly given the U.S. government's substantial engagement with WHO in the area of classification systems. But, said Reed, "there would still be a role for the DSM, because it contains a lot of additional information that will never be part of the ICD. In the future, it may be viewed as an important textbook of psychiatric diagnosis rather than as the diagnostic 'Bible.'"
Hmm, well I agree that these things should be left to the WHO and a centralized standards of practice should be created. I'm not saying that all of the UK, EU and such use the DSM but many doctors there do, not most, but many. But I don't live there and the WHO system is not used here and is largely sadly ignored.
However, despite whatever place it is listed, the facts remain from many studies that Asperger's is just a varied form of Autism, thus why it has been called Autism Spectrum Disorders but now has become Autism Spectrum Disorder with no s on Disorder, one Disorder with a spectrum of effect. Some things will change slightly from this but I don't see a huge negative impact, in fact I see more postives coming from it, sure you may have gone from being called Asperger's to Autistic, nothing truly changed there but the label, you were technically already Autistic. It also removes confusion as many people have thought it was different when in actuality it wasn't, even classic Autism effects each individual differently yet it was sub divided even further due to that fact.
I have heard or read somewhere that the WHO is considering changing their definition to match, I am curious where this stands, but I think it would be best that it does. Just because one doctor found it to be Autism yet different and wanted to make a name for him self shouldn't mean something that is in fact the same but allot less "severe" should have his name on it, yes it is in tribute but should it have been separate to begin with? Also, having it separate creates a sense of I'm better than them attitude within the disorder for those who have it. I have seen so many times on the internet and have been told by people with AS that they are better than those with classic Autism, that they are smarter, etc. while some of it may be based on facts, it's wrong, and it's degrading, so based on the new DSM there is no longer that as much, the rift between those on the spectrum.
Also now with recent events in the news, I wouldn't personally want to be labeled as Asperger's but rather with Autism as the public view is changing to a more negative view as only the negative things are covered by the media typically speaking, So people think that people with Asperger's are violent criminals out to steal credit card data, shoot up school children and more.
05 Feb 2013, 9:59 pm
