Bad news for us spergs: rolling back diagnoses

The news is the proposed revision of the diagnostic manual (DSM) is tightening up the criteria for diagnosis so only about about a fourth of the diagnosed would still be. Part of eliminating AS as a separate diagnosis from full autism. Of course we shouldn't use the AS as an excuse and just to ask for handouts, but this is going back to the bad old days of blaming us.

Michael John Carley of GRASP:

Once again, the New York Times is speculating that the new criteria would qualify only 76% of those currently diagnosed with classic autism, 24% of those currently diagnosed with Asperger's, and 16% of those currently diagnosed with PDD-NOS. This means that:

• Children who do not qualify for a diagnosis under the new revisions will almost certainly be denied special education funding by their cities and states (after all, what school board will spend money on a child with no officialy recognized learning challenge?)

• Many adults on SSI, SSDI, or Disability who barely meet the criteria for these services may not have those services (and health coverage) anymore.

• We risk a possible return to the days of 1993 and prior where negative interpretations of behavioral differences were rather status quo.

The motivations behind these mind-boggling changes, are very much unclear to us. While the autism world in our current void of information is speculating a multitude of possibilities — the most dramatic being improper influence of insurance companies — we would urge people to continue pressing the DSM-V committee with the idea that the current committee members have experience only with the more challenged end of the spectrum. None have any real experience with the end of the spectrum whose challenges are less physically visible.