Diagnosis question

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When you go for a diagnosis for Aspergers Syndrome, do you automatically get the full
DSM IV or is it just the AS that they concentrate on? Is the situation the same whether you do it privately or through the NHS?

I'm mostly interested in the UK system, but input from all parts of the globe are welcome.

Thanks

It could depend on what they have been asked to look for.

I asked my psychologist to look for related things during the diagnosis mostly because i am rational and scientific and only suspect (*) AS, but i am open to other diagnoses too.

(* i generally do not belive in self diagnosis because of self bias, but i have hypotesises about another thing i have, mostly because the doctors(plural) never had heard about the symptoms i told them about so i learned all that there was to learn on the subject, found 3 possible explanations, used logic to eliminate them, ended up with one explanation - which wasnt cureable).

I agree that self-diagnosis alone isn't enough.....it's important to get an impartial opinion from somebody who knows what they're doing. And it's important to look at the possibility of other conditions. Even if the client only had AS to begin with, co-morbid problems are likely to be present before very long. Not only that, but I guess it would be hard to diagnose AS unless those conditions that have similar symptoms were first ruled out. All of this suggests that no wise health professional would do an AS test on its own.

Of course the one downside is that it's likely to make a private DX more expensive And the NHS will be mindful of the expense to itself if you go that way, and therefore make it harder to get the DX by that route, though it'll never say so. It might also explain some of the skepticism shown my many GPs when they get patients demanding referrals for AS.....the GP might reasonably suspect that the patient has just picked up a fad and hasn't really looked at their mental health hard enough, if the patient seems resistant to looking at problems other than AS. Anybody seeking an NHS referral might do well to remember not to come over as too obsessed with their single issue......but I'm only speculating.

Anyway, back on topic - what else do they test for when you go for the AS diagnosis?