gbollard wrote:
The DSM has been wrong before.
Schizophrenic tendencies seem common with aspergers. I'm not sure that it's actual schizophrenia. It may just be a commorbid which looks like it.
I think that's why there's the distinction, otherwise they would diagnose schizophrenia any time that someone with AS presented with psychotic symptoms. There should be another axis for psychiatric diagnosis, I think, or a subdivision of axis 1.. the primary clinical diagnosis differentiated from diagnosies that are partly symptoms of the major ones.
Is AS axis 1 or axis 2? (Axis 1 is clinical diagnosis, Axis 2 is personality disorders and mental retardation, Axis 3 is general medical conditions, Axis 4 is socio-enviornmental factors, and Axis 5 is the global assessment of functioning.)
I think that the meanings of Axis 1 & 2 need to be overhauled, so that overall persistant conditions can be better differentiated from disorders that are more symptom than actual disorder-- things like depression and anxiety that go alone only in particularly minor cases. I need to organize that idea a bit better, I guess.. I guess neurology and psychiatry will have to travel farther into the realm of actual science before that can happen, where you actually know what's wrong when making a diagnosis, rather than diagnosing based on symptoms. Psychiatric diagnosis based on symptoms sucks, it's like saying someone has a cough. Could be TB, could be smoke inhalation. You can't effectively treat something that's diagnosed purely by symptoms.