Aspergers terminology

Post Reply New Topic

Recently my mum was at a training day at her school(where she works as an integration aide). A psychologist was running the session and according to her the term "Asperger's syndrome" is not allowed to be used by psychologists anymore. Supposed to call it high functioning autism.

Is this true where you are?

If you go strictly by the DSM, it is supposed to be "high functioning autism", but most people around here don't. Aspergers Syndrome is a common enough part of the mental health vernacular that they just go with it when you tell them you have it.

She is incorrect

"High Functioning Autism" is not and has never been an official diagnosis in the DSM. Aspergers Disorder was an official diagnosis in the DSM IV from 1994-May 2013. Aspergers Disorder, Autstic Disorder, and PDD-NOS were subsumed into Autistic Spectrum Disorder. People diagnosed under the DSM IV were supposed have their diagnoses transferred over with the new name. Functioning is not part of the diagnostic criteria. 3 levels of severity are. Social (pragmatic) communication disorder is a new official diagnosis that is separate from Autism Spectrum Disorder. Any other terms are colloquial.

http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/hcp-dsm.html

That does not mean clinicians can not use Aspergers or High Function Autism. As far as I know there are no sanctions if clinicians do not follow the DSM 5 but they may cause patients difficulty in gaining insurance and other benefits if they don't use the DSM 5 to diagnose.

"Aspereger Syndrome" remains an official diagnosis in areas using the ICD 10. The beta versions of the ICD 11 scheduled to take effect in 2017 gets rid of Asperger Syndrome"

Thanks for the correction. I wonder, where did the "high-functioning" label come from in the first place, and why is it so widely used if it's not an official thing?

Why did the DSMV get rid of the diagnosis?

Yeah, DSMV removed the Asperger's diagnosis, but strangely enough my psychologist diagnosed me with Aspergers using the DSM-IV last month so that I could get better help, rather than focus on pure Autism help.

Glad to hear.
If you are in the UK and other areas where the ICD-10 is used Aspergers is still official.
If not you who probably have a a psych who disagrees with the DSM 5

Last edited by ASPartOfMe on 24 May 2014, 4:35 am, edited 1 time in total.

It was felt that the two "disorders" were much to similar for there to be a distinct diagnoses.
http://sfari.org/news-and-opinion/viewp ... -the-dsm-5

Unofficially the massive increase in Autism Spectrum diagnoses were concentrated in the Aspergers diagnosis. There was a feeling Aspergers was being over-diagnosed (parents pushing it to get benefits, it had become a trendy diagnosis, non-autistic people were using it to feel cool or excuse bad behavior)
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/01/opini ... .html?_r=0
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index ... 508AAlqVLS

Others disagreed saying the increase in diagnosis was a result of better understanding, that research that had been done for Aspergers would go waste, that people such as myself who had been wandered not knowing what was wrong now for decades had found out there was others like me, an identity, that it was insurance companies that had forced this to lower diagnosis and that people who had a ASD would not get diagnosed like in prior years.
http://jerobison.blogspot.com/2012/02/u ... rgers.html
http://www.change.org/petitions/dsm-5-c ... -the-dsm-5

Also if you search for DSM 5 you can see how the debates played out on this forum

Do u feel that removing the term aspergers is helpful or harmful?

It was harmful to me because I got diagnosed last year in my 50's. Nobody knew anything about Aspergers when I was growing up so there was know way to know why I was different. I found an explanation and found out that there were others like me and because I was born with it I found an identity. Then immediately the psychiatric community said you don't exist.

I find a people have a more negative view of themselves and their condition on this board since the change. But I have found most people in the community even though they were upset when it happened agree with it now because of the negative connotations "Aspie" has. After what has happened in California the desire to get rid of the term will only increase.

I also think that lumping people with widely different issues under one diagnosis will lead to poor treatments. I do think the claims of mass over diagnoses and loads of Aspie wannabees are off base (The apparent misdiagnosis of Elliot Rodger doesn't help my argument) and I fear that people won't get diagnosed who should due to the feeling their has been widespread over diagnosis. I have seen a segment of Aspies who are elitists and don't want be to be associated with Autism because the feel they are above low functioning Autistics.

My solution instead of Autism Spectrum Disorder Level 1 the official diagnosis be changed to Aspergers-Autism. To the elitists it says officially you are autistic like it or not but it keeps the Asperger name that has been helpful for people. Dr. Asperger discovered "high functioning" Autism. At a time of Nazi eugenics he stated that the people he was seeing can be constructive members of society thus becoming the first Autism advocate. It bothers me to see the guy's name trashed like this.

Official or not your identity is something you have to decide.

Last edited by ASPartOfMe on 25 May 2014, 1:32 am, edited 3 times in total.

In my opinion I think it's harmful because there's a stark contrast between pure Autism (low functioning) and Aspergers (High functioning). Now that you're simply getting diagnosed with Autism, you may look for help in the wrong places and get assistance with things that don't apply to you. For example, if you simply say "I have Autism", they may try to set you up with assisted communications technology rather than work on correcting the understanding of nuances and you may come out confused and using a piece of technology you may not necessarily need. Same goes for low functioning where someone may try to help you overcome social boundaries an Aspie might not understand but miss the bigger problem of major tongue twisting.

While they're both Pervasive Developmental Disorders, I think the removal of terminology doesn't really help, only hinders in the long run.

LFA isnt directly related to being profound/severe in the same way HFA isnt automaticaly mild/moderate.
those of us who are under the label of LFA are so because we have varying levels of intelectual disability which affects our presentation of autism and day to day functioning,some LFAs dont have that much autism severity [eg,moderate] but present with the high support needs associated with LFA, am diagnosed as severely autistic and am low functioning [diagnosed mild intelectual disability,previously diagnosed severe ID until having spent four months in a ID hospital],however am still able to relate to aspies in different ways otherwise woud not bother coming to WP.

autism is a spectrum,the idea being it wildly differs from person to person-no two presentations alike,why isolate HFA when people with severe aspergers easily relate to classic autism and in many cases had a very close developmental history.

do we see profesionals isolating diabetes type two from diabetes because its not as 'bad' as type one,or isolating abscence seizures from epilepsy because theyre not as destructive as tonic clonic,status or cluster seizures? they all share the same core regardless of what the presentation on the outside looks like,thats why autism shoud be merged.

people who dont need much support will definitely not get it forced on them,given the fact how its extremely difficult for many people with severe needs to get it with many people [in the UK] already losing funding, governments arent suddenly going to start giving out money for different types of therapies or equipment just because someone gets given the ASD label.

theres a stigma with everything,people who stigmatise and discriminate someone because they are given the ASD label are ignorant priks to begin with and wont change upon hearing aspergers.

You bring up several great points KingdomOfRats. And I apologize if I sounded like a segregationist. I don't believe that LFA and HFA should be independent of each other. As you say, we're both Autistic at the core and I wasn't trying to say anything like "Aspies are better" or "Auties rule down with Aspies". I just feel as though the loss of the "Aspergers" title makes it harder for patients to help themselves. But you bring up several good points, such as the diabetes diagnosis and that there's no one title that will fit all Autistic patients.