Asperger's dropped from revised diagnosis manual

"Asperger's Disorder" has become a familiar term to millions of people. But according to the latest from the medical establishment, which helped to spread awareness in the first place, it doesn't really exist after all:

CHICAGO (AP) — The now familiar term "Asperger's disorder" is being dropped...The revisions come in the first major rewrite in nearly 20 years of the diagnostic guide used by the nation's psychiatrists. Changes were approved Saturday....Full details of all the revisions will come next May when the American Psychiatric Association's new diagnostic manual is published, but the impact will be huge, affecting millions of children and adults worldwide. The manual also is important for the insurance industry in deciding what treatment to pay for, and it helps schools decide how to allot special education.

Source (Yahoo Health)

Many people and their families who have been diagnosed with the disease worry that this will impact their treatment and lifestyle. But doctors say not to worry; those previously considered to have Aspergers will be covered under the newly-added term "autism spectrum disorder."

What does ATS think? Fair or not? Is it just a matter of words, or is something deeper at play here? In a sense I don't think it matters what name people use, as long as the quality of their special education or other needs is not affected. But perhaps it will be. Will people be less likely to treat those with this disorder as having a "real condition?" Or maybe some of you think its not really a real condition to begin with anyway.

There are ATS members who have written about having Aspergers' before; I'd be interested in hearing from them, or from anyone else who has experience with this (either personally or from friends and relatives.

Possible conspiracy angle:

The aim is not to expand the number of people diagnosed with mental illness, but to ensure that affected children and adults are more accurately diagnosed so they can get the most appropriate treatment, said Dr. David Kupfer. He chaired the task force in charge of revising the manual and is a psychiatry professor at the University of Pittsburgh.

When a medical expert says something, many ATS members think the opposite must be true. Are this and other changes to the new manual designed to put money in the pockets of the medical establishment somehow? Or does this effect other forms of spending (education, insurance, etc.)? Its worth exploring.

Uh...Chicago must have something to do with Obamacare. No doubt the Feds aren't going to pay for it - so it doesn't exist. Psych!

As they old saying goes: "That's why they call it 'practicing' medicine."

They make this stuff up as they go along. If they figure out, at some point, that they can't make money of of it, or that they can make more money on it if they re-configure a few things, they'll do it.

reply to post by KarensHoliday


Not too surprising.. BTW BUMP. Please excuse the accompanying near-rant, but I
believe it's germain to the topic.
The DSM4-TR was basically a backpedal anyway, probably from a lot of "dual-axis"
diagnoses that were in fact designations without any real clinical workup requirement.
I have genuine concerns and raise exception to diagnosis through pure interviewing--
resulting in characterizations that may or may not be valid in actual pathology. I'm not
discounting visible mannerisms or other unorthodoxies as trivial: but shouldn't be the
sole cause for certification, because the non medical doctor could with those newly
relaxed 'symptoms' indicate a condition previously requiring more comprehensive verification.
This not only seemed to irk a lot of real MDPhD's in the community; but also may have
helped the Document Commitee duck some rather uncomfortable sealed patient-based
torts... possibly a good sized class action or two. But sealed is generally politics and
the public safety: when money is involved, the latter will invariably suffer first.
Does it make you wonder if a lot of disorders were 'invented' just in time to roll out
a brand new family of medicines? "So how's the Eli Lilly Preferred doing, Doc?"
Always wondered about the regularly discovered new evil spirits the big boys regularly
cast out...with drugs or some other type of even more ineffectual processing.
Well. ineffectual except for billings anyway. It finally makes things more indecipherable
to the mainstream community, and actually therefore is counterproductive to the whole
concept of treatment. It's almost like only the doctors know what's going on sometimes..
hey are lawyers like that too???
DSM5 was supposed to be out a long time ago.. I look at it like Windows 95, it outlived
its usefulness to me when most all of us were characterized by the APA as "mentally ill"
for being mistrustful of the federal government.
Credibility? Hmmm: I think the jury's still poring over the last couple of reams.

reply to post by KarensHoliday


ASD is a far better description simply because no two cases are identicle and not one diagnosis fits all!

As a person with Asperger's, married to a man with Asperger's, let's just say it runs in the family. I know they want to put it in the autism spectrum, but I have to disagree on a few levels:

First of all, the DSM has turned in to a bunch of nonsense. They have been adding a bunch of "disorders" which were previously NEVER considered a disorder ("Oppositional Defiant Disorder" label for a rebellious child comes to mind). I think it all comes down to not wanting to pay for us when it comes to insurance. Not a problem, I don't have insurance, and don't plan on buying Obamacare until they twist my arm and make me.

As Asperger's never travels alone, but usually comes with things like severe social anxiety, generalized anxiety disorder, panic attacks, social withdrawal, bipolar disorder, depression, etc., treatment for those issues will continue.

Asperger's is hereditary. True autism is not, although siblings within a family may have it, but I still maintain it is due to environmental toxins attacking the immature brains of certain children who have a greater sensitivity, and develop brain damage, which leads to autism. I think all the vaccinations are part of it.

Asperger's should have been off by itself, only related to autism in a few ways. Expect more "disorders" which are absolutely real to be taken out of the DSM as Obamacare kicks in, and they try to find ways not to pay for stuff. Since they can no longer refuse insurance customers based on pre-existing conditions, they'll just start saying that certain problems do not exist.

Expect more of their slight-of-hand in the future.

Sorry, double post!

The Medical community has known about this for at least two years. When my neighbour had her child diagnosed, the Dr told her, if she had been there a year ago, she would have left with an Asperger's diagnosis, but that it was going to be eliminated. So he diagnosed high-functioning autism so they wouldn't have a disruption in programs and benefits.

This was summer 2010 in Toronto.

What if the medical community doesn't want to diagnose someone as aspergers or high functioning autism. That would mean that less people get diagnosed, deemed normal because of their high intellect, struggle socially, will not get adequate help, and eventually, depression. It could be the plan to ruin 20 or more years of the lives of people on the high end of the autism spectrum so that they'll get depression and end up thinking they're just weird and end up taking a boatload of antidepressants that don't address the real issue. If the medical community messes up, a lot of autistic people may suffer as a consequence and end up with depression. Maybe part of the plan to have autistic intellectuals take antidepressants for many years and then kill themselves? Just taking advantage of the sick even more? An excuse for the government to not diagnose them anymore and stop giving these high functioning autistics and aspergers people governmental help and benefits? Government: "Oh no! They're not mildly autistic. They're just normal odd smart people who don't conform or socialize well and are perfectly normal". Sure, they don't need help [sarcasm sign]. The government just want to stop helping these people and slap on ODD (obversive defiant disorder) instead. "Sure. Let's all be morons who's only duty is to conform to the popular masses! It's our patriotic duty. [sarcasm sign]" . Stupid government!

I find it strange that this was dropped as an "official disease" very shortly before the Connecticut massacre, which was perpetrated by a gunman repeatedly mentioned as having Asperger's.

Strange that these two pieces of news should occur so close together,

Could be a coincidence.

Then again...well, it's our duty on a conspiracy site to try to put together pieces of a puzzle, no matter how farfetched it sounds at first...right?

I grew up with Asperger's and felt utterly alone. It seemed like no one else on Earth suffered from the things zi did and I was just some oddball mutant. Then came Asperger's. I took many tests which proved I had it. Suddenly I knew I was not alone. I found other people had the same problems I do. That it was actually common enough to have a name. For once in my life I felt I had a reason I felt how I did and was not so alone.

So they want to take that away from me. Fine. Now other kids will grow up with the same feelings I did and not have any way to explain it. They will be pushed further into the fringes and made to feel even more outcast. I nearly blew up my school because of being an outcast. I still can't connect with society. I still feel utterly alone. I am still an outcast misfit mutant. Now I will lose my explanation. I will lose my sympathetic ear. I will again just be weird and not someone who suffers from a named condition. I will survive and get over it. But those kids who need the help and need the recognition will not. They will kill again. You do not need guns to destroy a huge group of people. There are far easier ways. Easier for high IQ people who have no connection to the group. Explosives and toxins are simple to produce and deliver.

Watch and see. We will ban guns like morons, turn schools into prisons and someday a kid will turn a bus into a bomb and empty a parkinglot full of kids or make some nerve toxin and toss it through windows on a hot day and kill every living thing in a school.

Then what? Will we ban household chemicals? Will we say bullies have a right to act like they do?

It is stupidity. But then, we all learned those doctors were quacks way back when they said being gay was no longer a mental disorder, although it clearly is and always has been.

This topic and thread has been chosen to be discussed by the ATS LIVE crew this Saturday between 6-9pm pst (9-12 est), as part of this weeks exciting "Turbo Topics" segment.


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Hope you'll listen in to the show!
Johnny

reply to post by JohnnyAnonymous


Thanks for choosing it!

I feel honored...will be sure to listen in if I can.

reply to post by FissionSurplus


Hardly an Obama thing. The UK National Autistic Society (which I do fund raising for in my spare time) has been trying to remove the term Aspergers (as well as Kanner syndrome) for some time. Instead they are trying to raise awareness that it is incorporated it in the arena of high functioning ASD.

Autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) is diagnosed by an individual having problems with 3 distinct areas; Social interaction, Social communication and Social immagination. Individuals previously diagnosed with Asperger fall into the same diagnostic criteria. What must be stressed is that no two individuals on the autistic spectrum will present the same. They will simply be diagnosed (after a long period of study and testing) due to a lack of ability or complete lack of function in each of these three areas. For example some cannot speak at all while others have almost full use of language. Some can interact to varying degrees while others need to be in almost complete self-imposed isolation. However they all have ASD as there will be some lack of function in all three diagnostic areas.

Asperger was one of the first to identify the condition. However he failed to identify that the condition he was studying was also linked to others who were in fact lower functioning parts of the same condition.It is believed that he assumed they were suffering from something different because their presentation appeared so different from those he was studying. We now know that the symptoms identified by Asperger and Kanner in the 1970s were in fact part of the higher end of the Autistic spectrum, and the treatment strategies are the same.

Originally posted by FissionSurplus
...Asperger's is hereditary. True autism is not, although siblings within a family may have it, but I still maintain it is due to environmental toxins attacking the immature brains of certain children who have a greater sensitivity, and develop brain damage, which leads to autism. I think all the vaccinations are part of it.

If you haven't seen it yet I highly recommend watching The Autism Enigma from David Suzuki's "The Nature of Things." I viewed it several months ago now and found it eye-opening! It makes one wonder what other diseases plague our society and are caused by environmental factors more so than genetics.

Originally posted by KarensHoliday
reply to post by JohnnyAnonymous

 

Thanks for choosing it!

I feel honored...will be sure to listen in if I can.

your avatar is annoying you should change it I'm avoiding reading your posts.

reply to post by KarensHoliday


Asperger's is part of a contiunum now labeled the "AUTISTIC SPECTRUM". It is at the very beginning of the spectrum aka very functional (aspergers) to very dysfunctional at the end of the continum.

One will be consdered a high functioning autistic.

These family's will be fine.

Asperger's is hereditary. True autism is not, although siblings within a family may have it, but I still maintain it is due to environmental toxins attacking the immature brains of certain children who have a greater sensitivity, and develop brain damage, which leads to autism. I think all the vaccinations are part of it.

reply to post by FissionSurplus


I agree with you! I have 6 children, one of whom has been diagnosed with Asperger's. He was my 5th child. From the time he was born I knew something was "different" about him than the others. From the moment he was born he cried non-stop. I could not console him. Being the 5th child I know it wasn't lack of parenting skills that was causing me being unable to console him. As he became a toddler I noticed symptoms of OCD. He would lose it if any of his food was not "perfect". If I gave him some fish crackers he would go ballistic if it was missing a tail or had any pieces broken off of it. Bread could not have any air holes in it, or it was broken and he could/would not eat it. God forbid I brought swiss cheese in the house...forget it!!

He could not stand certain textures of clothes, sheets, towels. While in the crib he would scream and cry when I put him to bed because of patterns on the blankets or sheets (not that I knew that until he could communicate that to me). No wonder bed time was a nightmare!

I will say this...I did not do immunizations for my children. I do believe that if I had he would have become full blown autistic. I have a brother and a sister who both have children who are autistic and it did not happen until after immunizations. I did not do them. I believe with all my heart that if I had my son would have become off the spectrum and had full blown autism.