Is it really possible to 'loose' a diagnosis?

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Psychologist Deborah Fein PhD has probably done more to document this phenomenon than anyone. She first noticed that some of the children she was following no longer met the criteria for autism. "I was definitely very surprised," she recalled. Like most clinicians, she believed autism was a lifelong condition. For her research, she sought out other children who also left their autism diagnosis behind.
She and her co-researchers meticulously documented the diagnoses of 34 children with autism, and their loss of those diagnoses and autistic symptoms. They tested their communication, reading comprehension, academics, language, and social abilities, even their ability to recognize faces. They compared them to two other groups, 44 people with "high-functioning autism," and 34 people who developed typically, called controls. High-functioning autism usually refers to autism with average or "normal" intelligence.
Were people in the lost-diagnosis group really free of autism, or were they "pretending to be normal," to borrow the words of one author with autism?
By all measures, this group seemed to be functioning no differently than people who never had autism. They even did well with daily living skills. Daily living skills can befuddle people with autism who have average and above average intelligence, according to research on teens in the Simons Simplex Collection project. The lost-diagnosis group also did not differ from controls on measures of repetitive and ritualistic behavior, a symptom of autism.

Research suggests that people who lost their autism diagnosis often:
Were diagnosed younger, such as before 31 months of age,
Had better cognitive abilities,10 and milder symptoms, particularly in the social arena, as young children
Had a larger reduction in repetitive behaviors (such as hand-flapping or finger-flicking) between ages 2 and 3,
Underwent earlier, and more intensive autism intervention especially therapies based on Applied Behavior Analysis.

Ms. Bascom says ASAN hears from adults who may not meet criteria for a current autism diagnosis but who "have clinical depression, social skills issues, and sensory integration problems. That doesn't sound like a recovery," she said.
Dr. Fein and her fellow researchers did not find more depression in the optimal outcome group, but they did report more ADHD and phobias than in the control group.
In an interview, Dr. Fein said losing one's diagnosis and autistic symptoms is only "one kind of optimal outcome," but there are many kinds. She points to Temple Grandin PhD, the animal scientist with autism. "She writes and speaks about autism, and has made many contributions in her [scientific] work, and she's still autistic. Having a good life while still having autism is a form of optimal outcome. It just doesn't happen to be what we're studying."

You can not "lose" the diagnosis