Reworked Autism Definition Prompted Drop in Diagnoses
March 20, 2019
By: Shaun Heasley
Source: Disability Scoop
Five years after a sweeping overhaul of the diagnostic criteria for autism, research suggests that the changes have led fewer people to be identified with the developmental disorder.
The definition of autism was reworked with the adoption of the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders in 2013.
The new manual did away with Asperger’s syndrome, childhood disintegrative disorder and pervasive developmental disorder, not otherwise specified, in favor of a broad diagnosis of “autism spectrum disorder” with clinicians denoting a level of severity.