Named after Hans Asperger, the Viennese pediatrician who first described “autistic psychopathy” in 1944, Asperger’s was understood as “high-functioning” autism. When DSM-IV was published in 1994, the number of possible diagnostic criteria had increased to sixteen and four subcategories were listed under Autistic Disorder: Asperger’s Disorder, Pervasive Developmental Disorder, NOS (not otherwise specified), Rett’s Disorder, and Childhood Disintegrative Disorder. The DSM-IIIR (1987) changed the title of the diagnosis to Autistic Disorder and described autism as “pervasive lack of responsiveness to other people.” Six diagnostic criteria were required, including appearance before 30 months of age, gross distortions or deficits in language development, and peculiar, sometimes rigid attachments to objects.
Not until the DSM-III in 1980 would Infantile Autism appear as a diagnosis that was separate from schizophrenia. The fact that it could also result in mental retardation was added, however. In the first edition of the DSM, published in 1952, the word autism appeared only once, in connection with schizophrenic reactions in young children, much like what was meant when the term was first coined in 1911 by Eugen Bleuler, the same person who introduced “schizophrenia.” In the first DSM, it was only because of their “immaturity” and “plasticity” that children presented a different clinical picture than older individuals with severe mental illness.īy 1968, in DSM-II, “autistic, atypical, and withdrawn behavior” was still associated with the presentation of schizophrenia in childhood. This matters not only because the DSM has guided diagnostic decisions but because those decisions have also governed eligibility for educational services and health insurance coverage. Its clinical characteristics and criteria have also changed and expanded. The term “autism” has become much more common in the DSM, replacing childhood schizophrenia and childhood psychosis. As a result of these new criteria, far fewer people will qualify for needed autism services.Autism’s curious history in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, the American Psychiatric Association’s diagnostic bible, reveals how dramatically the diagnosis has evolved over the past half-century or more. These results replicate findings from two previous studies, with older children/adolescents and adults. The proposed DSM-5 will result in far fewer persons being diagnosed with ASD. Toddlers diagnosed according to DSM-5 exhibited greater levels of autism symptomatology than those diagnosed with DSM-IV, but the latter group still exhibited significant levels of autism symptomatology. Groups were also compared on BISCUIT-Part 1 scores to determine if groups differed on autism symptomatology.ĭSM-5 resulted in 47.79% fewer toddlers being diagnosed with ASD compared to those on the DSM-IV.
DSM-IV and DSM-5 criteria were applied and overall prevalence using each set of criteria was established. Two thousand seven hundred and twenty-one toddlers at risk for a developmental disability participated. To evaluate prevalence rates of autism and autism symptomatology in toddlers using DSM-IV vs DSM-5 criteria.