Which diagnosis is more severe Autism: PDD-NOS or Aspergers?

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I've been wondering about this tonight. I've read two exactly opposite statements on two different " knowledgeable" sites.
Can anyone here help clear this up?

PDD-NOS can be more severe and it can be milder. It just depends.

PDD-NOS ranges from most mild to most severe. It just means not enough symptoms... it doesn't dictate if the symptoms are mild or severe.

PDD means "pervasive developmental disorder" (aka autism) and NOS means "not otherwise specified" so all it means is someone is autistic but does not fit neatly into a particular diagnosis.

I think it's like saying one is somewhere on the "autism spectrum" but just not specified.

Yes, it just depends. A person with mild PDDNOS likely has higher functioning than a person with severe AS (and vice versa).

Another name for PDD-NOS is "atypical autism". There's no severity level attached because "NOS" is just the abbreviation for not otherwise specified; in other words, you have autism that doesn't fit into another specific category.

For that matter, there's no way to predict whether any given case of Asperger's will be more or less severe than any specific case of classic autism, though a general tendency exists because AS is ruled out in those with developmental delay--but classic autism is not necessarily associated with developmental or speech delay; it just has a broader range of symptoms than AS. Symptom intensity doesn't actually play into it that much.

PDD-NOS simply means that not enough symptoms are present to warrant either a classic autism or an asperger Dx.

all three criteria of wings-triad have to be met, in order to warrant the latter two Dx's

that means people with PDD-NOS have fewer symptoms. but it doesn't say anything about the severity of the symptoms present, and therefor it is absolutely possible for someone with PDD-NOS to have more severe symptoms overall than a person with autism or asperger.

Heh, not even that--you can have an odd combination of symptoms and be diagnosed PDD-NOS even though you have more symptoms than the classic autism group or the Asperger's group. Or you could just be untestable in some way; like, say you have cerebral palsy and it's impossible to tell whether you are prone to stimming because you have such poor muscle control to begin with.

for those who need to understand more about the criteria:

http://www.awares.org/static_docs/about ... cSection=3

and

http://www.awares.org/static_docs/about ... cSection=5


and a very good description of it all:

http://www.autism.org.uk/about-autism/a ... -name.aspx

Thank you for your feedback, everyone. As I understand this so far, the individual symptoms of any given category can vary pretty widely, and the individuals' own characteristics are the markers for which category they go in to.
In other words, you can have one or two very severe autistic symptoms, or several milder symptoms, and still be totally on the Autistic Spectrum. Or even have 3 or 4 mild to moderate symptoms, and still be certifiably Autistic.
Whew! Never heard of any disorder where things could be as different as night and day, but still be on exactly the same illness range!

Heh, there are actually plenty of them. For example, cerebral palsy can be expressed in a lot of different ways. Of course there are the different symptom intensities, from a minor limp to no controllable movement; but there are also the differences between muscles being too loose or too tight, too hard to initiate movement, too hard to stop movement, overreacting, underreacting, too much force or too little... very variable. And yet still the same phenomenon.

This. PDD-NOS is reserved for those who have symptoms of an ASD, but their symptoms don't fit neatly into the diagnostic criteria for either classic autism or AS. However, a label of PDD-NOS doesn't measure how severe somebody's symptoms are compared to another person who has AS. That being said, problems related to having PDD-NOS can be more mild than AS, or more severe. Severity levels differ from person to person.

Callista, what an interesting way to help explain Autism! Using an analogy about Cerebral Palsy! I gotta admit, my wife is right! I'm an analogy talker! Love 'em!
It is amazing to think about, but the more I learn about Autism (including my own), the more I want to learn. Wow!...