If you were a diagnostician....

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...what would give you the total conviction that the patient in front of you has Asperger's?

Sorry Greantea, but what exactly is the question?

well my dear justin the question is if a patient was asking for a aspergers diagnosis what would make you tick the boxx and tell them they are disagnosed

well for me if thei background history all checks out, they are in the lines of the dsm

I suppose it would be my personal opinion on their adherence to the criteria. I imagine that sometimes it would be incredibly obvious, and other times it would be very cloudy (more of a judgement call). I don't think it would always be a universally-accepted conclusion, though. I'm sure that there would be other equally-qualified diagnosticians that would disagree with me on specific cases.

I agree with that somewhat. Agreement would have to be at least 80% (probably 85%) amongst professionals, otherwise the legitimacy of the label comes into question. That is to say, a diagnosis made by one diagnostician would be made by 8-8.5/10 other diagnosticians. I think it is in the interest of certain groups online to continually attack the soundness of the criteria in order to bolster their claims.

I dont know. I guess it would be a certain amount of characteristics. There is no characteristic which is The One which all aspies have so that is hard.

The voice. I have taught myself how to identify the autistic monotone voice.

The aspie checklist topic

My psychologist has been diagnosing AS and autism for over 20 years (a little less for AS, of course, but I trust his judgment). He is also a Brit, and has seen quite a lot of AS in Australia and UK. He has done work with Tony Attwood and the the provincial courts here in Ontario trust his skills.

I would suspect AS if I did testing, interviews and had the diagnosing skills of my psychologist. I could not base it on a simple, cursory glance.

Not all people with AS have a flat voice.

First, I'd check the patient against the standard diagnostic critera, and then I'd check if they have unusual eating habits, which is so common in AS it used to be a diagnostic criteria. I don't think that mental illness is so single-faceted that you can just say that "That guys 100% AS", I imagine most cases have a co-morbity of some kind. Some disorders can easily be mixed up because the criteria tend to overlap for several conditions, for example I technically meet the criteria for Schitzoid, Aspergers Syndrome, and Schizotypy, yet I do not consider myself to be Schitzoidic (al? enic?). I would tell the patient what co-morbities they have, but I would try to narrow it down to one "official" disorder, so that they could get treated for their predominant traits, and avoid stigma (for example a person with schitzotypy might not need anti-psychotics)

After similar conditions were ruled out, I'd look for "AS" indicators. So what would scream "AS" to me? Special Interests, lack of eye contact, and stimming would be the main things I'd look for.

When someone came to evaluate me they told my mother they could tell by just the way I walked/carried myself. So I'm sure that would be at the top of list when I first see them.

Otherwise go by diagnostic criteria but also things such as:
-eating habits
-sleeping schedule/habits
-sensory issues
-executive dysfunction

agreed millie to class someone autstic by voice is INCREDIBLY narrow and one sided and is already blown if you put me and my friends ben ad callum together all our voices are different and not monotone at all I think the whole monotone voice aspect is a large misnoma and gladly is not on the DSM

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Last edited by alba on 01 Jul 2009, 6:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.

DSM IV.V (I updated the DSM IV)

Delay in development of social interaction skills

Delay in development of abstract (figurative or nonverbal) language

Focused and intense interests or patterns of behavior

These characteristics cause clinically significant impairments in personal, social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning in NTWorld

Describe additional characteristics that might enhance or interfere with subject's functioning in NTWorld
(e.g. sensory (eating is a form of hypersysitivity), literacy (hyperlexic), talents/deficits, learning styles, anxieties, gastrointestinal, allergies, ways of self-soothing, etc.)