Asperger's Autism

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I have seen several threads recently which have debated the terms Asperger's syndrome and Asperger's disorder. Some people have wondered whether a new term could be found which would be more descriptive and less objectionable.

Why not simply use the term, Asperger's autism? After all, "classical" autism is commonly called Kanner's autism.

Personally speaking, I have changed all references on my site from Asperger's syndrome to Asperger's autism.

Well, I've always believed that AS was a high-functioning form of Kanner's, myself.

Let's just call it HFA. More accurate, less objectionable and has no comic mispronunciations of which I am aware.

For me, 'disorder' has quite a few negative connotations. I like this new suggestion.

The problem with that term is that, among researchers and clinicians, there are disagreements about whether HFA and Asperger's refer to the same diagnostic entity. For instance, Asperger's has a better "prognosis" than HFA. I posted a piece on that subject from a peer-reviewed journal a couple of days back.

It all depends on preference. To me, saying "Asperger's Autism" would be better than that "syndrome" label anyday.

Better yet, let's just stick to the OLD description, and diagnose it better, with none of the GILBERG garbage!! ! That is even MORE accurate/descriptive.

My son was originally diagnosed as autistic. Period. Then unofficially, they called him mildly autistic. Sometimes high functioning autistic. He doesn't ever use the word aspergers to describe himself but to save time, I'll tell people he's aspy.

I agree. I don't care for either "disorder" or "syndrome."

Asperger himself used the term autism, so it makes some sense to incorporate it into the label.

Autistic disorder with mental retardation
Autistic disorder without mental retardation

The latter runs into problems due to the fact that those who have an early verbal impairment tend to have a worst outcome in later life, which is why they may keep the term Asperger's in the future (not to mention there is some clear differences in symptom morphology between Asperger's and HFA).

I think there should just be a diagnosis of "on the autism spectrum", with varying levels of severity. It's just so widespread and no autistic person is the same - I'm very low on the spectrum so I don't qualify for a label, but I still know that I'm on it and it would be helpful to be able to tell people that and have them understand.

Maybe. I don't know. However, my point was to address an existing diagnostic category (Asperger's disorder, which is what it is called in the DSM-IV-TR) and to modify its designation.

I agree. I have access to a large database of academic articles through the college where I teach, and the term "Asperger's" is commonly used by researchers. Since many of those researchers are the ones who will be deciding on the terminology to be used in the DSM-V, it would surprising to see "Asperger's" simply dropped or replaced with another term.

let's just call it 'Asperger's and leave it at that..

honestly, I just call it 'the condition that dares not speak it's name..'

however you want to relate to the condition, each of us can make their own choice...

Preparatory work for the DSM-V is now being done. If we are going to have a voice in what Asperger's is going to be called in that document, we might want to consider these issues.

Granted, not everyone is interested in the subject of labeling, but some people do regard it as an area of concern.

A lot of people have interest in the name "Asperger's". For the most part, I'd prefer it if they held off with changing everything around until they have more data, i.e., is there a real difference between HFA and AS other than severity of the two disorders? Attwood and his ilk say they're the same thing, but they use different criteria for AS than the DSM-IV-TR (Gillberg's); they lump them all together.

People also confuse and misinterpret the DSM-IV-TR in practice, even professionals. People tend to neglect the pertinent and telling information in the differential diagnosis section under Asperger's which separates it from autistic disorder in most cases (HFA/LFA).

My psychiatrist said they're adding new stuff, changing some stuff around and that some people will need to be rediagnosed.