It's Asperger's SYNDROME and not DISORDER, GRRRRR!! !! !

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Send a letter to the editor. Here's what it should look like (you'll probably want to change around a few things, and maybe embellish a bit).

While reading a recent article entitled <insert article title here> I noticed that it repeatedly referred to Asperger's Syndrome as "Asperger's disorder". It is important to use the correct terminology since while there are certainly drawbacks to having it there are also major benefits, such as enhanced mathematical abilities. Also the article failed to mention that the increasing occurrence of Asperger's Syndrome could simply be due to people becoming better at recognizing it. Indeed it wasn't even officially recognized by the medical community until the mid 90's. So teachers may have not heard of it when they started because there wasn't even a name for it then.

Ummm....no

They just told me they'd never really heard of it before now, and truth be told, most people haven't.

I also don't think she'll try the controlling stuff on me anytime soon- her ex before me was a controlling schmuck who physically and verbally abused her, cheated on her, lost her her job and her money, and more- got thrown in jail for it...and blamed it all on her.

No no- she's one of the warmest, most accepting and understanding individuals I've ever met.

Here in the States, the official name is Asperger's Disorder, though this will likely change with the release of the DSM-V in 2012. I disagree with both the "disorder" and "syndrome" terminology; really syndrome is certainly not any less negative than disorder. All major researchers into Asperger's have concluded that it is a difference, not a defect. I believe nominalist has suggested referring to it as Asperger's Autism, which seems reasonable to me. Since most researchers seem to consider that the differences between AS and HFA are minimal to nonexistent, I personally think it makes the most sense just to lump Asperger's in with HFA.

OK, lets le GOOGLE decide!

disorder=181000
syndrom=117000 <<<<Mainly german and misspellings only
syndrome=993000

It looks like syndrome WINS! Even the german centric spelling almost ties with disorder!

Gillberg's criteria and the DSM-IV-TR both call it disorder; that's 2 to 1 for the ICD-10 (which I knew called it syndrome).

Personally, I think it'll still be called Asperger's disorder in the DSM-V; they'll just change the diagnostic criteria around, or make sure to explain the differences between the manifestation of autistic disorder and Asperger's in clear text, rather than all over the place (they say that the IV-TR is there to bridge the gap between the new one, so it shouldn't change too much).

beau99, psychiatrists and psychologists are the "experts" who diagnose ASDs; neurologists can, but people with ASDs aren't usually sent to them.

Syndrome, Disorder - Tomato, Tomotto - Potato, Poetato
I sort of thought they were the same thing, although
disorder sounds like something is broken, when it isn't

Orwell,

Yeah, many researchers do, but that's not saying much (many call it "disorder" too, but with a quick perusal, most use "syndrome"); don't forget that researchers brought up the whole LFA/HFA drivel.

I'll post the quote when I feel like typing from another page; the DSM-IV-TR includes a whole heap of added information that's pertinent to the diagnosis and manifestation of Asperger's to aid in clearing up confusion, and also to bridge the gap in time between the DSM-V as it was delayed. There's confusion between many professionals as they look at the diagnostic criteria of AS and AD, and then they feel that AS appears the same as AD but without a delay in language development and imaginative play; they then see that the criteria states no problems in communication and self-help skills, but as everyone knows, people with AS have such. The -TR clarifies the points by stating that yes, people with AS do have peculiarities of language, but it's not of note compared to the severity of AD; the self-help skills that it speaks of are severe and many times life threatening without intervention in AD, not putting on one's socks before their shoes for example doesn't count in AD.

As an aside, I feel pretty damn disordered; whether I'm called Asperger's disorder/syndrome, autistic disorder, or super-genius-delusions-of-grandeur-next-evolutionary-step person.

I don't like the term Asperger's at all. I've been under the impression that Asperger's is used as a cloak by people who want to hide the fact they have Autism. Be proud, tell people you are on the Autism Spectrum. Education is the only way we're going to change the publics warped view of autism.

Anyway, Asperger's is a form of autism...

so what to call autism?

Is it a syndrome, a disorder... the same thing will be true for Asperger's.

In German it's 'tiefgreifende Entwicklungsstörung'

Which translates into pervasive development disorder anyway. AS/autism = PDDs.


What I don't understand is: Why should autistic people get off differently than those with other disorders?


By the way: Asperger himself did write "autistic psychopathy" but always in quotation "". He lacked a word he deemed fit.