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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]http://www.care2.com/causes/did-the-dsm-create-an-epidemic-of-aspergers.html

Dr. Allen Frances, editor of the DSM IV, on the overdiagnosis of Asperger's.

In a small condo on the beach in San Diego lives A[b]llen Frances, who blames himself for what he calls the "Epidemic of Asperger's." Frances edited the last edition of the DSM[/b], and he's also the new DSM's most prominent critic.

[b]Frances is the one who put the word Asperger's in the DSM in the first place, thereby making it an official mental disorder.[/b]

In the editions before Frances was editor, there was an entry for autism, but it was defined by severe symptoms. Frances says doctors felt the diagnosis for autism didn't cover a more mild disorder they were actually encountering.

[b]"Pediatricians and child psychiatrists would see kids who could talk but who had social discomfort — severe social discomfort — and awkwardness and a very restricted and impairing level of interests and activities, and they wanted a diagnosis for this," Frances says.

A study was done to figure out how common Asperger's was, and the results were clear: It was vanishingly rare. Then Frances put it in the DSM, and the number of kids diagnosed with the disorder exploded. Frances remembers sitting in his condo reading articles about this new epidemic of Asperger's that was sweeping the nation.
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders[/b]

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM, is the official list of all the mental disorders doctors can use to diagnose mental illness.
Ellen Webber/NPR
[b]
"At that point I did an 'oops,' " he says. "This is a complete misunderstanding. It was distressing. Quite distressing."[/b]
[b]

It's not that Frances doesn't think that Asperger's exists and is a real problem for some people; he does. But he also believes the diagnosis is now radically overused in a way that he and his colleagues never intended. And why, in his view, did Asperger's explode? Primarily, Frances says, because schools created a strange unintentional incentive.[/b]

"In order to get specialized services, often one-to-one education, a child must have a diagnosis of Asperger's or some other autistic disorder," he says.

"And so kids who previously might have been considered on the boundary, eccentric, socially shy, but bright and doing well in school would mainstream [into] regular classes," Frances says. "Now if they get the diagnosis of Asperger's disorder, [they] get into a special program where they may get $50,000 a year worth of educational services."[/quote]

I would love to get my kid with Asperger's $50,000 a year worth of educational services but alas he is just at a mainstream public school with an IEP getting social skills classes and OT.  If there are any parents here who is getting 50k or even 25k worth of services, please let us know how you got it.[/quote]

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