Is HFA (High Functioning Autism) an Official Diagnosis?

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Hello!

Is HFA recognized as an official diagnosis by some doctors/professionals and not others? I ask because our son's IQ was tested at 4-years of age and he has normal intelligence (high average in some areas), at the same time he received the diagnosis of autism. We questioned the doctor about HFA and we were told that HFA is not an official diagnosis they use, though our son fits that description. I feel our son is high-functioning - in fact I know he is, yet I still feel confused because the doctor didn't give us any idea of where our son is on the spectrum -- the diagnosis was autism, though we know it's really HFA. Anyway, it creates unnecessary confusion.

Anyone else with HFA with an official diagnosis of autism?

Thank you.

P.S. This board is great!

Right now if you are going strictly by the DSM or ICD there is no such diagnosis as HFA or LFA. Just autism, Asperger, childhood disintegrative disorder, PDD-NOS, and Rett's.

But some doctors will write high or low functioning or mild or severe. But technically the diagnosis is just autism.

Soon the DSM will have all of those things called just autism, and Rett's will be removed. Autism will be rated from mild to severe though, on the basis of a few traits that are not even really central to autism. (But not on the basis of IQ or academic ability either.)

I just have a diagnosis of autism. No high functioning attached. Occasionally people have attached low functioning or severe, but only in side comments, not in the diagnosis itself usually. I don't believe in functioning levels, and I don't think we know enough about what autism is to tell the difference between mild and severe. So I just go by autistic. I think I have a particular non-majority subtype but there is no name for it officially.

Can't imagine why a doctor would say that at this point, since to my understanding HFA and AS are and have been for years definitely recognized diagnoses, else there never would have been any discussion of how AS & HFA differ.

However, word is that when the DSM-V comes out in 2012, both of those are to be absorbed into the overall ASD classification, which to my mind is absurd. We don't even know yet whether the genetic markers for all ASDs are the same, in fact, it's looking as though they aren't, so just because symptoms and effects are similar doesn't mean Autism is Autism is Autism across the board. There may very well be several different types - it seems a no-brainer that levels of functioning make more than a little bit of difference in how and in what ways a person's life is affected.

Overall I think moving them to one diagnosis is good. Not at all because it's all the same. But rather that there are probably hundreds of different types and it seems unfair to make it into two types in the flawed way that the autism/AS split goes. I think it will be better to call it all one thing, and then name all the subtypes within that thing. Rather than two different names for hundreds of things. Plus Asperger and Kanner were studying nearly identical groups of children, and many of Kanner's patients would now be called AS while many of Asperger's patients would be called autistic today. So better to just acknowledge that Kanner and Asperger both called their patients one thing (autistic) and then say "autism type 1, 2, 3, 4, etc." as realer subtypes are discovered. That is how many other conditions (diabetes, Ehlers Danlos, etc.) do it.

Researchers in the past used it to separate people based on IQ in the studies they did. It then took on a life of its own to mean myriads of things depending on who you spoke to and when.

Just "autism" is adequate to explain the various iterations of social impairment and repetitive behaviours that cluster together in people. Just "OCD" explains the various forms of obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviour that cluster together in people, and severity can differ widely between them, just like "autism" (with the stipulation that it must be clinically impairing).

I have written down, Autistic Disorder, high-functioning, but I also have Asperger's Disorder written down from somewhere else too.

Officially my diagnosis is "Higher functioning Autism consistent with Asperger's Syndrome."

So I would say yes.

It's not in the DSM manual. That makes it not "official."

However, clinicians/psychometrists do decide levels of severity, and that is "official" in a different way.

I've heard that it isn't really much of an official diagnosis but doctors however still use them, but you could try and get your son diagnosed if possible if it was HFA or AS?

Everyone thinks i'm AS for the ones that knows me, but I have a feeling i'm HFA since I didn't speak a single word till the age of 3 and a half years old.

Did your son have any speech delays?

I'd say that it is. It sure isn't made-up.

The "Autism" part is a pretty well-defined diagnosis. Not much of a problem there. It's the "high-functioning" bit that I have trouble with. There is absolutely no set standard definition for "high-functioning", and when a doctor applies it to a patient, there is absolutely no telling what the doctor means when he says it other than directly asking why. Some doctors will apply it to anyone who can speak. Some will apply it to anyone with an IQ of 70 or higher. Some will apply it based on GAF. But the vast majority will just say "high-functioning" or "low-functioning" based entirely on their impression of their patient--which is, at best, a subjective impression of an autistic person in a highly unusual environment, observed by a doctor who does not live with them, at a single point in their development. Not to mention that IQs can change (especially with autistics) and mean much less than we think they do (again, especially with autistics). GAF is outright designed to change.

So, basically, you may as well ignore any functioning labels they try to stick onto your child, because they mean very little.

"Autism" or "Aperger's Syndrome" is the official diagnosis (for now), there is no entry in the DSM called "High Functioning Autism". However, "high functioning" is a clinical term, commonly used, to describe those at the milder end of the autism spectrum.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-functioning_autism

It's not a clinical term; it doesn't have a definition. Actually, to quote the Wikipedia article you just linked:

So, basically, high-functioning autism is a word for the group of people who are called high-functioning autistics.

It. Means. Nothing.

When I say it is a clinical term, I mean that it is used in clinical settings - many doctors use it to help their patients understand where they are on the spectrum. Many researchers also routinely use the term in their research papers. Researchers have attempted to define HFA in the research literature. So it is used, clinically. Just because it doesn't have official diagnostic status, does not mean it's not a clinical term.

As far am I'm aware, "Autism" is the diagnosis and the AS/HFA/MFA/LFA/Profound categories mark where a person sits within that diagnosis.

So it's not an official diagnsosis so to speak, but a clarification of the severity of the Autism diagnsosis. The purpose of this severity clarifcation is so affective and appropriate treatments and coping strategies can be implemented.

Yes, our son does have a speech delay. Until the age of 3 he was speaking in one word sentences and on rare occasions 2-word phrases. After the age of 3 1/2 the language really started coming in. Yet our son always had an impressive and extensive vocabulary from an early age, he just spoke using one words. Our son is still working on the speech, but making steady progress.

Thank you for the feedback!

I've been reading all the replies, which have all been helpful and very interesting. Thank you!