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Sunday, May 26, 2013

Problems with DSM-5 Definition

At The Huffington Post, Frances identifies two major flaws in the DSM-5 definition of Autistic Spectrum Disorder:
A truncated version of its Criterion A reads as follows: 
1. Deficits in social-emotional reciprocity;
2. Deficits in nonverbal communicative behaviors used for social interaction;
The really fatal flaw here is that no instructions are given as to whether one item, two items, or all three items must be present to make the diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder. The diagnosis will vary dramatically from rater to rater, institution to institution, and place to place depending on which of these three different possible convention is chosen. It will be even more impossible than it is now to determine rates of autism and why they shift so much over time.
The second fatal flaw comes in the following statement attached to the end of the criteria set for Autism Spectrum Disorder:
This throws wide open to raters the choice of using DSM-IV criteria or DSM-5 criteria depending on their personal preferences.