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2:46pm July 31, 2013

➸ Fresh fuel reignites Asperger’s debate

josiahd:

colinoclock:

josiahd:

absurdcreation:

Children with Asperger’s Syndrome have different electroencephalography (EEG) patterns to children with autism, reveals a study in the open access journal BMC Medicine With distinct neurophysiology, the study pours fresh fuel on the on-going debate about how Asperger’s should be classified. The most recent edition of the mental health manual, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), published earlier this year, reversed the decision, lumping Asperger’s in with ASD.

EEGs can’t reliably distinguish autistic from neurotypical people. That’s why they’re not used to diagnose autism.

Given that, it’s kind of ridiculous to try to use them to distinguish autism subtypes.

Is it true that Asperger’s is going to be declassified or something? And if you have it you’ll be diagnosed with autism? Which is plain stupidity, given that they are separate conditions which have a totally meaning (eg, if you have Asperger’s there is debate over whether or not you can have certain other conditions).

Autism and AS aren’t separate diagnoses in the new DSM, that’s correct.

And it makes sense, because they’re *not* actually separate conditions. Especially given how young people can be diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders.

You can tell certain things about whether a three year old has expressive and receptive language (although not as reliably as some people think), but you can’t tell from that what their cognitive abilities will be when they are 12. Or 50.

It really doesn’t make sense to diagnose someone with a different condition based on something as arbitrary as what they language skills appear to be when they’re younger than three.

Anything that’s a matter of legitimate debate for autistic folks who appeared to have typical language skills through age 3 is a matter of legitimate debate for autistic people who appeared to have a language impairment prior to age 3.

They’re not totally separate conditions. It’s the same thing. And it’s good that it’s being treated that way now.

Yeah basically…

There are lots of different types of autism.

But AS isn’t a type of autism. It’s just singling out people based on one or two traits differing from other autistic people.

With AS the main trait is early speech development. But you could pick any trait that some autistic people have, others don’t, and craft an entire new syndrome. But that’s pointless.

But real subtypes of autistic people? The differences are deep, not shallow. They are differences in cognition, movement, and perception. If you pick two nearly identical autistic people on a deep level, one may be diagnosed with severe autism, the other mild AS. Even if in all but a couple ways they’re nearly identical.

Also, I think, in the end, it may be impossible t name all the subtypes.

Because imagine all these people spread out over many dimensions in this amazing rich landscape. Similar people are close together. What direction you are from someone, indicates different areas and traits.

“My subtype” is not necessarily an island of only one type of people.

“My subtype” is just everyone within a certain distance of me. In any direction.

Another person’s subtype is everyone within a certain distance of them.

Their may overlap mine, or be entirely different. Each person’s subtype is a slightly different group of people.

You’ll NEVER see diagnostic criteria for that.