New DSM does Disservice to Patients with Asperger's

Last month, the latest updates to the DSM-IV, or Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, were revealed by the American Psychiatric Association. Many of these updates were surprising, confusing, and even amusing. Sex addiction was added to the list, as well as disorders related to laziness and compulsive binging.

Some categories, such as eating disorders, were expanded. Eating disorders are no longer limited to anorexia and bulimia, but instead encompass several other variations and behaviors, including the growing trend of compulsive overeating, a form of which is essentially bulimia without the purging. At the same time, however, varying degrees of autism were lumped into one label. According to the new DSM, a patient with mild autism who is highly functioning yet unable to determine how to behave socially will no longer be diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome. Instead, this person will fall into the category of "Autistic spectrum disorder," along with patients who are severely autistic to the point of being unable to care for themselves or even verbally express their needs.

While it may seem simple to lump all forms and varieties of autism into a large category, it is likely to be an incredibly dangerous and damaging move. For patients who have more mild forms of autism, it is almost guaranteed that many will be misdiagnosed. A doctor who does not want to jump to the extreme label of "autism" may instead given the diagnosis of "Attention deficit disorder" or "obsessive compulsive disorder" based on some of the similar signs and symptoms, such as avoiding eye contact, poor communication skills, nervous ticks, and fixations. These sorts of errors in diagnosis can greatly stunt therapy attempts and can lead to over-medication and other serious treatment issues. Patients in these situations will not receive the specialized care they need, and the frustration of failing treatment will simply be added to the frustration that already exists from living with the disorder.

Outside of treatment, patients with Asperger's Syndrome, or "aspies," who attend public school but who are, perhaps, in special education classes, will suffer as well. These students will be labeled as simply "autistic" and will thus be enrolled in classes alongside severely disabled children. Most public education programs, no matter how well funded, do not have the adequate special education staff to meet the needs of each and every child. A student with Asperger's who is lumped in with a group of severely autistic children will almost certainly lose interest in assignments that are below their intellectual level, and as a result, will act out in the classroom and against their teachers.

It is difficult to comprehend why the American Psychiatric Association would make the move to categorize all forms of autism as "autism spectrum disorders." When observing issues like eating disorders, it is easy to see that a patient is almost always suffering from another form of emotional or mental illness, such as anxiety, depression, or bipolar disorder. It seems unusual, then, that the APA would devote so much effort into defining each and every eating disorder behavior while choosing to group autistic patients of incredibly broad varieties into one diagnostic label. Hopefully, the APA will listen to the friends and family members of people with Asperger's as they continue to voice their concerns over the negative effects these changes will inevitably cause. Asperger's Syndrome is already an incredibly misunderstood disorder, and by taking away the diagnosis itself, the new DSM will only make treatment and schooling more difficult for aspies.