Difference between PDD-NOS and Asperger's Syndrome

Page 2 of 5 [ 71 posts ]  Go to page Previous  1, 2, 3, 4, 5  Next

Noetic
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 18 Jan 2005
Age: 45
Gender: Female
Posts: 1,277
Location: UK

25 Jan 2013, 1:10 pm

alan78 wrote:
Is it possible to be on the autistic spectrum without displaying repetitive behaviour? I feel i have severe problems when it comes to social interaction and communication, but i don't really have any of the repetitive behaviour.

Yes, although by far not everyone who is a loner, shy, socially anxious, lacks empathy or is otherwise socially inept is automatically on the spectrum.

Also, you may think you don't fit some criteria but people who know you well may disagree, for example some people don't think they are routine oriented or have repetitive behaviours or interests or physical stims, but they may well have them and not NOTICE.



Dreycrux
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 5 Jan 2013
Age: 36
Gender: Male
Posts: 552

25 Jan 2013, 1:18 pm

DuneyBlues wrote:
They have lower IQs and are considered moderate functioning.


What? It's like a mild Asperger's...meaning less of Asperger's. But all that ambiguity is going away thankfully and there is the new social communication disorder and ASD to clean things up a bit.



OJani
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 23 Feb 2011
Age: 50
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,505
Location: Hungary

25 Jan 2013, 4:30 pm

Noetic wrote:
alan78 wrote:
Is it possible to be on the autistic spectrum without displaying repetitive behaviour? I feel i have severe problems when it comes to social interaction and communication, but i don't really have any of the repetitive behaviour.

Yes, although by far not everyone who is a loner, shy, socially anxious, lacks empathy or is otherwise socially inept is automatically on the spectrum.

Also, you may think you don't fit some criteria but people who know you well may disagree, for example some people don't think they are routine oriented or have repetitive behaviours or interests or physical stims, but they may well have them and not NOTICE.

I agree. Many behavior is just not clear until it is pointed out. In many cases where repetitive behavior is apparently absent or minimal it is just not recognized due to learned suppression or less typical ways of stimming.

I'm diagnosed with PDD-NOS and however mild my condition may be the category itself doesn't tell anything about severity level, it can be anywhere between extremely severe and almost not on the spectrum.

Another way of putting "mild" PDD-NOS is that the person having it doesn't fit into the so-called AS stereotype, which in many diagnosticians' practices requires monotone voice, clumsiness, intense special interests, and high verbal vs. nonverbal abilities (IQ), or at least one of these.

Also, I think it's true that a person with PDD-NOS may have fewer symptoms (fulfill fewer criteria) than required for a specific PDD (ASD) diagnosis (including AS and AD), but some of them may actually be even more impairing than those required for a specific PDD diagnosis.



DVCal
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 4 Apr 2012
Age: 40
Gender: Male
Posts: 636

25 Jan 2013, 11:36 pm

Dreycrux wrote:
DuneyBlues wrote:
They have lower IQs and are considered moderate functioning.


What? It's like a mild Asperger's...meaning less of Asperger's. But all that ambiguity is going away thankfully and there is the new social communication disorder and ASD to clean things up a bit.


No it isn't a mild asperger. The majority of people with PDD-NOS would also meet the qualification for mild retardation.



DVCal
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 4 Apr 2012
Age: 40
Gender: Male
Posts: 636

25 Jan 2013, 11:39 pm

OJani wrote:
Noetic wrote:
alan78 wrote:
Is it possible to be on the autistic spectrum without displaying repetitive behaviour? I feel i have severe problems when it comes to social interaction and communication, but i don't really have any of the repetitive behaviour.

Yes, although by far not everyone who is a loner, shy, socially anxious, lacks empathy or is otherwise socially inept is automatically on the spectrum.

Also, you may think you don't fit some criteria but people who know you well may disagree, for example some people don't think they are routine oriented or have repetitive behaviours or interests or physical stims, but they may well have them and not NOTICE.

I agree. Many behavior is just not clear until it is pointed out. In many cases where repetitive behavior is apparently absent or minimal it is just not recognized due to learned suppression or less typical ways of stimming.

I'm diagnosed with PDD-NOS and however mild my condition may be the category itself doesn't tell anything about severity level, it can be anywhere between extremely severe and almost not on the spectrum.

Another way of putting "mild" PDD-NOS is that the person having it doesn't fit into the so-called AS stereotype, which in many diagnosticians' practices requires monotone voice, clumsiness, intense special interests, and high verbal vs. nonverbal abilities (IQ), or at least one of these.

Also, I think it's true that a person with PDD-NOS may have fewer symptoms (fulfill fewer criteria) than required for a specific PDD (ASD) diagnosis (including AS and AD), but some of them may actually be even more impairing than those required for a specific PDD diagnosis.


A person would PDD-NOS may also have more symptoms that exclude them from AS diagnosis, symptoms such as IQ below 70 or language delay.



Tyri0n
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 24 Nov 2012
Age: 37
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,879
Location: Douchebag Capital of the World (aka Washington D.C.)

26 Jan 2013, 12:18 am

DuneyBlues wrote:
They have lower IQs and are considered moderate functioning.


LMAO, no. 4 years in the military, graduating from law school, 140+ IQ on the Raven Matrices test (though only a little over average on the Weschler). I'd say I'm neither stupid nor moderate functioning.

It can be a diagnosis that doctors give when they don't know what to do with you, but you're obviously on the spectrum. In my case, I did not meet enough of the behavioral characteristics for Aspergers (no stims and insufficiently narrow interests), but my childhood medical records and videos clearly showed an autistic child, who had a language delay, and I continue to have severe social difficulties, so PDD-NOS it was -- my doctor described it as "mild Aspergers." But, of course, this is not the only way it's used.



DVCal
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 4 Apr 2012
Age: 40
Gender: Male
Posts: 636

26 Jan 2013, 1:20 am

Tyri0n wrote:
DuneyBlues wrote:
They have lower IQs and are considered moderate functioning.


LMAO, no. 4 years in the military, graduating from law school, 140+ IQ on the Raven Matrices test (though only a little over average on the Weschler). I'd say I'm neither stupid nor moderate functioning.

It can be a diagnosis that doctors give when they don't know what to do with you, but you're obviously on the spectrum. In my case, I did not meet enough of the behavioral characteristics for Aspergers (no stims and insufficiently narrow interests), but my childhood medical records and videos clearly showed an autistic child, who had a language delay, and I continue to have severe social difficulties, so PDD-NOS it was -- my doctor described it as "mild Aspergers." But, of course, this is not the only way it's used.


Sure in some cases it used for people who don't have enough symptoms, but is more often used for people who have extra symptoms.

PDDNOS is very diverse catch all, some are people with low IQ with limited language and function, while others have normal or high IQ but dont have repetitive behavior.



GrandTuringSedan
Blue Jay
Blue Jay

User avatar

Joined: 15 Nov 2012
Age: 54
Gender: Male
Posts: 80
Location: Western Pennsylvania

26 Jan 2013, 1:27 am

DVCal wrote:
Dreycrux wrote:
DuneyBlues wrote:
They have lower IQs and are considered moderate functioning.


What? It's like a mild Asperger's...meaning less of Asperger's. But all that ambiguity is going away thankfully and there is the new social communication disorder and ASD to clean things up a bit.


No it isn't a mild asperger. The majority of people with PDD-NOS would also meet the qualification for mild retardation.


PDD-NOS, IQ-150+.
I was diagnosed at the age of 42, so a lot of the Aspie behavior I had exhibited as a child was no longer evident (stimming, avoiding eye cntct, etc), although the underlying neurology hadn't changed. It is the right clinical diagnosis for me now, but if the Aspie dx had existed in 1975, it would have fit me quite nicely. I tend to think of it as: Aspie = atypical; PDD-NOS = atypical atypical.

Low IQ may exclude someone from the Asperger's DX, but it isn't an indicative symptom of PDD-NOS.



EB
Snowy Owl
Snowy Owl

User avatar

Joined: 22 May 2009
Age: 39
Gender: Female
Posts: 174
Location: CA, USA

26 Jan 2013, 1:46 am

I'm diagnosed PDD-NOS. I had previously been diagnosed (sort of) as Asperger's Disorder(by someone not qualified to diagnosis). I asked why my diagnosis was PDD-NOS and not Asperger's which I thought I fit. I was told that I did meet the requirements for Asperger's, but there were other things that went beyond that diagnosis so PDD-NOS was considered the better diagnosis to go with. I was rather annoyed for a while over this, but have since accepted it. The fact that it's all being changed soon doesn't bother me. I asked about what would happen when I got diagnosed and I was told that my diagnosis would still be valid and rolled into the new spectrum label. Nothing was said about being diagnosed over again, though I was asked to check back in a year, but nobody's contacted me about doing it yet.

I can't speak for anyone else, but in my case I was labeled PDD-NOS instead of Asperger's due to exceeding the requirements for the later by a small amount. The exact details of why were not told to me though I did ask.


_________________
I am female and was diagnosed on 12/30/11 with PDD-NOS, which overturned my previous not-quite-a-diagnosis of Asperger's Disorder from 2010


Noetic
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 18 Jan 2005
Age: 45
Gender: Female
Posts: 1,277
Location: UK

26 Jan 2013, 2:30 am

Tyri0n wrote:
It can be a diagnosis that doctors give when they don't know what to do with you, but you're obviously on the spectrum.

That there is PDD-NOS in a nutshell. Severity of symptoms doesn't come into it.



DVCal
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 4 Apr 2012
Age: 40
Gender: Male
Posts: 636

26 Jan 2013, 10:33 am

GrandTuringSedan wrote:
DVCal wrote:
Dreycrux wrote:
DuneyBlues wrote:
They have lower IQs and are considered moderate functioning.


What? It's like a mild Asperger's...meaning less of Asperger's. But all that ambiguity is going away thankfully and there is the new social communication disorder and ASD to clean things up a bit.


No it isn't a mild asperger. The majority of people with PDD-NOS would also meet the qualification for mild retardation.


PDD-NOS, IQ-150+.
I was diagnosed at the age of 42, so a lot of the Aspie behavior I had exhibited as a child was no longer evident (stimming, avoiding eye cntct, etc), although the underlying neurology hadn't changed. It is the right clinical diagnosis for me now, but if the Aspie dx had existed in 1975, it would have fit me quite nicely. I tend to think of it as: Aspie = atypical; PDD-NOS = atypical atypical.

Low IQ may exclude someone from the Asperger's DX, but it isn't an indicative symptom of PDD-NOS.


People like you are not the norm for PDDNOS. Much more common are low IQ and low functioning people. It is a diverse group though.



Tyri0n
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 24 Nov 2012
Age: 37
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,879
Location: Douchebag Capital of the World (aka Washington D.C.)

26 Jan 2013, 11:32 am

From Wikipedia. Studies suggest that persons with PDD-NOS belong to one of three very different subgroups:

Quote:
1. A high-functioning group (around 25 percent) whose symptoms largely overlap with that of Asperger syndrome, but who differ in terms of having a lag in language development and mild cognitive impairment.[8] (The criteria for Asperger syndrome excludes a speech delay or a cognitive impairment.[9])

2. A group (around 25 percent) whose symptoms more closely resemble those of autistic disorder, but do not fully meet all its diagnostic signs and symptoms.[8]

3. The biggest group (around 50 percent) consists of those who meet all the diagnostic criteria for autistic disorder, but whose stereotypical and repetitive behaviors are noticeably mild


It seems that a few people on this board fit into #3 but with respect to Aspergers. Since the diagnostic manual was designed for children, doctors don't quite know what to do with someone who has, for example, learned not to flap her hands or talk obsessively about a special interest but still has social impairment. So it makes sense that PDD-NOS would cover a lot of high-functioning adults.



DVCal
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 4 Apr 2012
Age: 40
Gender: Male
Posts: 636

26 Jan 2013, 11:46 am

Tyri0n wrote:
From Wikipedia. Studies suggest that persons with PDD-NOS belong to one of three very different subgroups:

Quote:
1. A high-functioning group (around 25 percent) whose symptoms largely overlap with that of Asperger syndrome, but who differ in terms of having a lag in language development and mild cognitive impairment.[8] (The criteria for Asperger syndrome excludes a speech delay or a cognitive impairment.[9])

2. A group (around 25 percent) whose symptoms more closely resemble those of autistic disorder, but do not fully meet all its diagnostic signs and symptoms.[8]

3. The biggest group (around 50 percent) consists of those who meet all the diagnostic criteria for autistic disorder, but whose stereotypical and repetitive behaviors are noticeably mild


It seems that a few people on this board fit into #3 but with respect to Aspergers. Since the diagnostic manual was designed for children, doctors don't quite know what to do with someone who has, for example, learned not to flap her hands or talk obsessively about a special interest but still has social impairment. So it makes sense that PDD-NOS would cover a lot of high-functioning adults.


Group three refers to people who meet the requirement for classical autism, people who are low functioning, but lack all the relative behaviors.



tall-p
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 25 Dec 2010
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,155

26 Jan 2013, 2:21 pm

Just an awkward old man's opinion, but this is the problem with DXing Asperger's. The DXers are all over the place.


_________________
Everything is falling.


OJani
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 23 Feb 2011
Age: 50
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,505
Location: Hungary

27 Jan 2013, 4:11 am

Joe90 wrote:
I don't know what PDD-NOS stands for, but I know what it means.

I've met a few people with this sort of thing. They weren't Aspie enough to be diagnosed, but they were like they were on the spectrum somehow. Although I have mild AS, I still seem ''severer'' than them, so it must be PDD-NOS with them. It's like they seem Aspie-fied and everything, but then they are still better than me at chatting to people they don't know. I can relate to them and everything, and they say how they feel when they're in social situations (like feeling shy and not wanting to speak and not knowing what to say), then when we are in a social situation I find they are speaking comfortably to everyone and saying the right things as though they haven't got anything wrong.

Maybe I would be like that if I didn't have Social Phobia.

Maybe one gets better with age? Actually, I was on an ASD social evening yesterday and I felt I could relate to what you wrote. I'm just not sure how it was when I was younger. Sometimes I'm trying to fit in even though I feel I'm saying awkward and/or inappropriate things (and I've feedback I've done wrong). More people seem to reject me than not, but I feel a driving force to let go, go on, and practice. Also, communication is not everything, when you have clear autistic tendencies (irregular emotions, autistic thinking style, sensory sensitivities, lack of eye-contact etc.). I can't put up a facade for very long either, so much lying and social thinking drives me nuts, simply put.



Raziel
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 25 Oct 2011
Age: 40
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,612
Location: Europe

27 Jan 2013, 5:35 am

I was dx with HFA years ago, but I was "right on the edge" of the diagnosis.
As a child I was classic autistic actually, didn't talked and so on and I still have trouble with routines, overload and all that, but not that much social anymore (still a bit). So I asume the right diagnosis for me is PDD-NOS, but in my country it's not realy a typical diagnosis. For most shrinks either you have ASD or you don't.
Also when I did the AQ for the diagnosis I got 32 points, I was much younger then. But now I just get 26 points.

So my ASD got better, but my mood got worse over the years. 8O

How it is already mentioned, PDD-NOS just means that you don't fullfill all diagnostic criteria, but those whom you fullfill are still strong enough for a diagnosis. So there is a spectrum from BAP (broad autism phenotype) over to PDD-NOS and to fullblown ASD.


_________________
"I'm astounded by people who want to 'know' the universe when it's hard enough to find your way around Chinatown." - Woody Allen