Transplanting a Seattleite

The people working on DSM V have been criticized for trying to reduce rates of ASD. This is almost funny. It would be funny if I were callous, cruel and had no personal stake in the issue. But I'm not, generally speaking, and I do, so, Not Funny.

The DSM V groups are on record, repeatedly, saying that diagnosis rates _were not_ part of what they were thinking about. Their goals are straightforward: stabilize diagnosis across time and practitioner. Swedo says some people who identify as Aspie are no longer going to have a spectrum diagnosis, because they'll be moved over to Social Communication Disorder -- which will also pick up some new people. But that's only going to be Aspies who have no sensory issues, no stereotypy and no "special interest" thing going on and honestly? Do you even know anyone like that who is already getting services? Anyone being medicated for that shouldn't be taking drugs for it anyway, imo (altho maybe for a related anxiety thing, but that's not going to be affected).

There are people who are trying to target ASD with drugs. I've run across them and run away as soon as I encountered them. Almost all of the cost to "society" associated with ASD is the requirement (often embedded in state law, but also through Federal Law) to provide services to people with autism diagnoses. Some state law mandates life long services, IIRC; Federal law applies through the FAPE mandate. There's no real gain or loss to Pharma to redefine ASD.

The current state of affairs just encourages denial ("At least it's not autism" "It's just PDD-NOS" "Asperger's isn't a spectrum disorder!", etc.) and turns a bunch of parents with kids on the spectrum against each other. And whichever disorder you have, the school district doesn't really give a shit. They're going to do their own assessment and decide whether to provide you with access to their speech person, their OT, and their resource room based on their assessment -- not what some psychologist or psychiatrist says. If you need an outside person to come in to convince your district to provide needed services, _this redefinition will not affect you_. If you could get the psychiatrist or psychologist to produce documentation to force services to be provided under DSM-IV, it'll only get easier under DSM-V.

I think the fear about atypical antipsychotics being passed out is probably justified ... if you're near the poverty line and you have a highly involved child. That's the only group that I've run across that gets loaded up with insane drugs that doesn't have the resources to fight back and demand services instead.