Mental Retardation misdiagnosed as autism (other disorders)

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Back in the day before people knew about autism, it was diagnosed as mental retardation or childhood schizophrenia. Nowadays, it seems that people with mental retardation as assumed to be autistic. There as supposedly other childhood disorders that are similar to autism (such as selective mutism or Landau-Kleffner Syndrome) which are not well known. Are people being misdiagnosed too often? I don't think most therapists/psychiatrists catch up on the mental disorders to know the difference and just slap on a label.
What do you think?

your right about the history of autism.the more severe cases were viewed as mental retardation and the aspies,hfa,ppd-nos and nvld was seen as schizaphrenia.i dont know if thats still true.also people can have both there are a number of people who have downs syndrome and aspergers as a dual diagnoses and this oesnt mean they have been confused with each other,one can have both.its harder to understand mental disabiities so people assume one cant have both.with phyical disbilities dual diagnoses is obvious.when i drov taxi there was a customer who was deaf and paraplegic

Actually, there was a time in the seventies when (at least, for instance, in the works of Frances Tustin and anyone influenced by her) schizophrenia was the diagnosis given to those who'd today be considered LFA, while Kanner autism was reserved for those who'd be considered "higher functioning". "Regressive" autism was far more likely to be considered schizophrenia as well.

Interestingly, these historical things didn't just suddenly stop one day. They faded, and they faded at different rates in different places. In the nineties, I was first diagnosed with autism/PDDNOS (meaning autism was the oral diagnosis, PDDNOS the written, so that insurance would not write me off as hopeless), then with schizophrenia, then with just straight autism, just by seeing different clinicians. (There were other factors involved too, but all of those factors have been described in Tony Attwood's books, so maybe they weren't all that weird after all.) The people who diagnosed me with schizophrenia also claimed I'd been "psychotic" since infancy, and blamed my mother for this, so they really were holdovers from the seventies, not just people who innocently mistook autism for schizophrenia.

they even diagnosed HFA and aspergers as "ret*d" as late as 1994, back when I attended preschool and was labled as "mildly mentally ret*d"

According to a summary of studies on Autism Spectrum Disorders that I read (a summary of findings from different panels that are dealing with different ASD issues for the purpose of developing the DSMV) ASD's can be reliably diagnosed (distinguished from and diagnosed separately from or in conjunction with as the situation warrants) in people with mild or moderate intellectual disabilities. The reliability of the diagnosis in those with severe or profound ID is not as good because of the "behavioral repertoire" found in those individuals. In other words a very severe lack of social engagement interaction might be found in an individual just bcs they are profoundly ID and ALL of their practical life skills are profoundly impaired. Also stereotyped behaviors are common among ppl with more severe ID's.
I guess it doesn't matter as long as people are receiving services that are useful for them...........someone who fits the behavioral repertoire of autism might benefit from services for autism........................

I think they can be mistaken for each other, yeah. I mean, I've had people assume I'm MR because of how I act sometimes, especially when overwhelmed; so I can see how that could happen.

Autism and MR share some features, too. Stimming, delayed language, delayed socialization.

It often seems to come from this assumption that people make that all your skills have to be at the same level. Autistics often have skills scattered all around, and if the NT making the observation is seeing a skill that you're way behind on, and assuming that ALL your skills are at that level, then they may easily assume you are globally delayed.

Someone with the global delay kind of thing will of course also be delayed in the things that autistics classically have trouble with. And if you see just those areas, then you may assume "autism".

Of course, autism and mental retardation occur together a lot of the time, though really I think in that case "atypical development" or "delayed development" is a better term; it is not the same thing as a global delay in which all your skills are pretty much at the same level, because with autism you can have the global delay and then still have them scattered all over the place. Autism's not the only thing that happens with; the most extreme form of scatter--savant syndrome--is only associated with autism half the time.

So if you have autism+MR, you have a different thing than if you have MR alone, even if the IQ scores and adaptive skills are the same. Education/therapy has to take that into account.

It's all about the outward appearances. I don't know if you've ever met anybody who's schizophrenic, but when they're having trouble with it, they can get this sort of flat affect, monotone voice, and speech that tends to go round and round without meaning too much. They can make repetitive movements too, and they have problems perceiving and understanding the world around them correctly. They have this disconnect between them and the world because their perceptions/cognitions aren't syncing up. And then you can see that same kind of monotone voice, disconnect, odd speech in someone who's autistic, and you don't think about their internal experiences; you just look at the outside and you assume it's yet another case of schizophrenia.

And yeah, high-functioning/low-functioning definitely plays into it. HF/LF are almost entirely about how the doctor perceives the patient; and if they see "high-functioning" they assume "this is a mental illness" (back then that meant psychosis and neurosis in general), and put the person in the "psychosis" category with the schizophrenia diagnosis. If they saw "low-functioning" they assumed they were seeing yet another mentally ret*d child. I'm using a lot of quotes here because I'm meaning the functioning labels in terms of doctors' perceptions, i.e., high-functioning meaning "Doctors perceive you as high-functioning--mildly disabled, intelligent, or doing better than expected for your diagnosis." Doesn't say much about actual ability, but says a lot about how they see autistics.

I was misdiagnosed with meantal retardation in the 90's. my parents were told I was unteachable. Not true. if it were true I would not be here typing to people. now I think of my self as high functionign. my doctors say I have autistic disorder.

When I was 3 and 4, doctors thought that I was Autistic because I spent a lot of time staring at my phonograph when I played records-I just LOVED records! I'd also stare at things on walls, pretending I was watching the opening credits of a TV show. In this era, when we hear of misdiagnosed kids being sent to the "Feeble-Minded Home", It makes me shudder to think of what would have happened if my Parents hadn't known better (I was a child in the 60s).But my Father never accepted that diagnosis.A few years later, the Doctors reversed themselves on the Autism business, but still said that I would never become independant. I have, but It took me longer than It should have(I was 26), owing to depression and misguided fantasies of show business fame-I planned on becoming a famous comedian through Boston open mike nights. Cripes! But It makes me sick-I still could have been sent to a "Home" if my parents wished. Good thing they didn't. I most probably had Inflexible-Explosive disorder. I always threw enourmous temper tantrums in the school playground, which led to almost every kid in town calling me "Mental", which led to more tantrums. But one lives and learns.

Maybe this is kind of irrelevent but I really wish people would not try to relate every mental illness or mental condition to mental retardation. Its ignorant even if it is coming from people in the psychology field.

I don't know if I was ever labeled ret*d but I have read I scored in the mildly ret*d range. Mom told me no one ever thought I was ret*d but kids did.

Doctors also thought I was autistic in the late 80's because I had a speech delay, ritualistic behavior, I am not sure what else. They also wrote I didn't tolerate being touched. My parents were also told I'd be in an institution and never live a normal life nor take care of myself. But there was one doctor that slapped the label on me before learning my history so mom just walked out of there never taking me back to him. But the rest seemed to have thought I was. They didn't buy the diagnoses either. Then when I was four or five, it was changed to autistic behavior and then to communication disorder later in life. Then I was diagnosed with AS when I was 12 and the psychiatrist said I had an autism spectrum disorder. My mom had to work had with me and I worked hard.