Do you think Asperger's Syndrome is over diagnosed?

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Do you think that AS is over diagnosed and that it is just a label we are putting on a population that is similar to the human condition?

No.

Over self-diagnosed, maybe (it's hard to tell if one has AS, NVLD, SPD, ADHD, Autism, OCD + Social Anxiety, Simple Schizophrenia, and/or Schizoid PD just by looking at oneself), but not over-diagnosed.

It's reportedly under-diagnosed (50% is the current rate).

AS maybe; I think milder forms of autism-ness are often mistaken for it. Sometimes I wonder if maybe I just belong in the general NVLD/PDD-NOS/broader autism phenotype range.

Underdiagnosed.

its form of genes mutation last time this happened few hunred years ago i mean u dont see new mutation every day

Yeah you do. We're mutating all the time. It's the sheer number of genes we have that means none of the mutations really amounts to much--either it doesn't show up in the phenotype, or it's too drastic and the embryo doesn't survive. If you mean, "You don't often see a new sustainable mutation that shows in the phenotype of a species", then yes. I don't know if AS is even a mutation; it seems to be more like NT traits taken to an extreme--different combinations of genetics that already exist.

You could find out about autism diagnosis by picking out a random, large group of people and screening them. That would still miss some Aspies, but you'd get a rough guess.

If you think AS is overdiagnosed because it's diagnosed so often, remember that there are other neurological things that are more common--ADHD (1 in 20), dyslexia (1 in 7), and Tourette's (1 in 100), for example.

there are many dysfunctional people who wish to live in the shelter of pretending they are AS.

there are many tired psychologists who are fooled by the acts that asperger "wannabe's" learn and perform.

there is no substitiuting reality with acts, and i see that not even 1/10th of people who claim to be AS are like me.

i am annoyed somewhat that some empty NT's see an explanation to theirselves as being describable as AS.

there are not many truly AS people.
there are vastly many more pretenders.

I don't know about others, but my son did not get an AS diagnosis, yet I think he has so many of th traits that I was suprised. His couselor thinks it's AS, too. The couselor thought that Children's in Cincinnati is very cautious with diagnosing.

I wish it had been acknowledged when I was in school that I was experiencing developmental problems that needed attention.....um.......but this was back when ADD was not well-known and AS was not on the books....so I supposed that alot of kids like me did not receive help because we were not "retarded"...so....probably back then it was underdiagnosed...if kids are being noticed for their problems and being given access to some sorts of resources (like special accomodations and whatnot)these days...then that is probably a good thing.....BUT i also think that lots of things are over-diagnosed...and that is why there are so many kids out there on medication...and I think that is a bad thing....as far as AS in specific though..I really don't knwo...

I've seen it diagnosed on 2 people where i thought this just can't be right.
They have been shifting between getting a pdd-nos diagnosis in the past and now asperger.
It seems to me that the asperger label is now being distributed more widely.
But these were people that were even more social, and talked more than the average person.
They also had very wide interests, wich is simply nothing like your average AS person.
Having 1-3 traits seems enough to get the diagnosis these days.
In my opinion the real AS people are becoming a minority of the people with the AS diagnosis.

AS is still a bit new on the block these days, I never really heard much about it until this decade. It wasn't until 1994 that the DSM-IV came out and it was acknowledged. I think my mother first mentioned AS to me in 1996, but I was diagnosed with "autistic features" in 1989 or so.

Definitely under-dx'd in general.

There's over-diagnosis if you mean false positives, b/c there's always going to be cases of doctors throwing the easiest diagnosis at patients. But those are the same doctors who'll over-dx lots of things.

In women, under-diagnosis is very likely responsible for a huge portion of that supposed 1:4 ratio.