May 14, 2021 – When billionaire Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla, announced on his last appearance on Saturday Night Live that he had Asperger’s Syndrome, many applauded his transparency and ability to talk about a condition that is often stigmatized.
Others who still value honesty point out that Asperger’s is an outdated terminology. It is no longer considered a diagnosis in the Mental Disorders Diagnostic and Statistics Guide, the “Bible” used by mental health professionals to diagnose illness. Instead, it falls under the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) umbrella. The DSM was last updated in 2013.
ASD is now defined by the American Psychiatric Association as “a complex developmental condition that presents persistent challenges in terms of social interaction, language and non-verbal communication, and restricted / repetitive behavior”. The association emphasizes that those affected have a wide range of skills and characteristics.
Asperger’s and some other similar disorders previously diagnosed separately are now known as ASD, says Dr. Matthew Siegel, vice president of medical affairs for the developmental disorder service line at Maine Behavioral Healthcare in Portland, who specializes in the treatment of autism spectrum disorders. The main reason for the change was that doctors couldn’t reliably diagnose Asperger’s and some other autism-like conditions based on patients’ symptoms and appearance, which vary widely, Siegel says. Researchers also couldn’t reliably duplicate these different categories of autism in their studies, he says.
“Hence the decision was made to treat it as a spectrum disorder and to try to account for the significant differences between people with autism,” says Siegel. The name change recognizes this difference in severity in people with ASD, says Siegel, who is also an adjunct professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at Tufts University School of Medicine. “We evaluate the severity of the symptoms rather than trying to break them down into different diagnoses.” Now doctors diagnose ASD as stage 1, 2, or 3, Siegel says, with stage 1 being the diagnosis for high-functioning patients with less severe problems. “Treatment should be based on severity,” he says.
The new term is less derogatory, says Dr. Victor M. Fornari, vice chairman of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Zucker Hillside Hospital in Glen Oaks, NY. “‘Autistic Person’ sounds more pejorative than ASD, which reflects a broader spectrum. ASD reflects a more cohesive understanding of the disorder that occurs along a continuum.”
Regarding the reasons people cling to the outdated term, Siegel says that this may be the term that was used when the patient was initially diagnosed.
“I think the exciting thing is that when Elon Musk reports he has autism – whether by an outdated term or not – that the public sees a person lifting the stigma of diagnoses like autism, whatever it is called” , he says. “And people can see that people with autism can, for some, be very successful and be part of our society.”
WebMD Health News
swell
Victor M. Fornari, MD, vice chairman, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Zucker Hillside Hospital, Glen Oaks, NY.
Matthew Siegel, MD, vice president of Medical Affairs, Developmental Disorder Service Line, Maine Behavioral Healthcare, Portland; Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at Tufts University School of Medicine.
American Psychiatric Association: “What is Autism Spectrum Disorder?”
© 2021 WebMD, LLC. All rights reserved.
Comments are closed.