Asperger's removed from leading health manual

[GNR4LIFE]

The diagnosis of Asperger's Syndrome is being removed from a key psychiatric manual used by health professionals around the world.
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Australian doctors fear the removal of Asperger's from the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder could have implications for the way autism is diagnosed, treated and funded in Australia.

It is the first major revision to the manual since 1994.

In the fifth edition of the manual, released in May, Asperger's will be incorporated under the diagnosis of "autism spectrum disorder".

Autism Spectrum Australia found the proposed changes "may significantly reduce the numbers of individuals diagnosed" with autism in Australia in a peer reviewed study.

More than one in 100 Australian children are diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder and rates of diagnosis have been increasing in recent years.

The American Psychiatric Association's medical director James Scully said the changes would lead to more accurate diagnosis.

But Autism Spectrum Australia study author Vicki Gibbs said the "more stringent" requirements for a diagnosis would mean many parents would not be able to get help for their children.

Critics have attacked other changes in the manual, including a new diagnosis for severe frequent temper tantrums, disruptive mood dysregulation disorder, which they say could increase the number of medicated children.

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/2012/12/03/08/06/asperger-s-diagnosis-removed-from-leading-medical-manual?mch=mobilenh&mchpost=pos6
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Who was the moron who made this decision? I work with several children with Autism and they get so much out of having extra one on one support, and for this decision to be made based on what seems to just be a way of saving a few bucks so they don't have to find these children makes me sick

 

[Yossarian]

I'm not sure if I followed this right but they're re-categorising it rather than removing it?

 

[Sabre]

The APA is massive and the new edition has been in the works for a while.
I would say with Aspergers being considered 'high end autism' it is just removing that word.

 

[weststigers4life]

I remember watching Ricky Stuart's interview on ACA about his daughter with Autism and i couldn't imagine as a parent what these poor families have to cope with and what little support they receive from the government.
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My three-year-old autistic child is one of the lucky ones

by
Matthew Horan

In the past few days we’ve seen the predictable follow-ups to the Government’s decision to screen three-year-olds for mental illness, including autism.*

“Parenting experts”, and the usual trolls who rabbit on about ADHD and Ritalin prescriptions, claim it’s all the parent’s fault and that kids will be diagnosed just so parents can access funding.

It’s uninformed rubbish from uninformed people wanting to make a political point rather than acknowledging this is a serious step to solving a serious issue.

But I’m annoyed for another reason – the Government’s plan doesn’t nearly go far enough.

You want to properly treat kids with autism? You’ve got to get them earlier than three if you can.

About eight months ago, my son was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

He was two-and-a-half.

He’s one of the lucky ones.

Lucky for a few reasons. First, his autism is mild. He’s what they call a “high-functioning autistic”. I call it (with a small dash of humour) “investment banker autism”. My mother, a nurse, calls it “doctor autism”. It means he’s highly intelligent, but can be a bit single minded and needs a helping hand in social situations. A good analogy is he sees 24 colours in a rainbow, not seven, and it takes time to process.

In terms of the autism spectrum, he’s Bill Gates, rather than Rain Man.

But the main reason he’s is lucky is because he got identified early. Early intervention therapy is critical for autistic kids. For the high-functioning kids it helps reshape the brain pathways so they can learn better, and not be the kid at the back of the class who plays up or ignores the teacher.

For the low-functioning ones, it enables them to say “Daddy”, and go to the toilet unassisted.

Early intervention therapy isn’t drugs – it’s things like movement and speech therapy, socialisation and dietary therapy (usually taking the kids off gluten and dairy). It’s hard work by therapists and parents.

And to be effective, children need 20 hours of therapy every week. The need for early intervention is backed up by peer-reviewed, scientific research, not the woolly thoughts of “parenting experts” who blame what is a genetic problem on mum and dad not hugging the child enough.

The AEIOU Foundation, which runs the best early intervention program in Australia, put out an economic study a few months back which found that there is a $2 million saving to the taxpayer for every child that gets early intervention. That’s $2 million that doesn’t have to be spent on home care, or special schools vs normal schools, let alone the economic benefit of the child going to uni and contributing rather than shelf stacking.

In the last eight months, as my wife and I have navigated the maze of autism therapies, playgroups and classes, we’ve come across dozens of parents whose children weren’t identified with ASD until they were five or more. It breaks your heart because you – and they – know that this is about as good as their child gets. From about five or six, the brain is fairly hardwired, and changing the neural pathways is like trying to steer a supertanker.

There are other issues as well – access to therapy is a big one – but the most crucial issue facing autistic kids is simply working out that they’re autistic.

The low-functioning kids are – usually – obvious. But the high-functioning ones like mine often slip through the net, because they’re ALMOST “normal”.

My son was only picked up because my wife was relentless in pestering doctors to get him checked. She was in a terrific mothers’ group and it was obvious that he wasn’t developing his speech as fast as the other kids. Our GP finally relented – after a few “he’s a boy, they develop slower/he’s just shy” diagnoses – and referred him to a paediatrician. Again, we were lucky.

This happened because another GP – this one with a highly autistic child – started at the same clinic, and awareness improved.

And to make the point – this is what would happen under the Government’s plan. GPs screen – highly qualified paediatricians diagnose. So you’re not going to get “over diagnosis”. You may get “over-screening”, but the diagnosis will be the same as it would – just more kids will hopefully be getting in front of a paediatrician rather than getting the “he’s just a boy” speech.

This is critical, because depending on which research you look at, roughly one in every 120 children in Australia are autistic. That’s more than have juvenile diabetes, or childhood cancer. Three out of every four autistic kids are boys.

So chances are you know someone with an autistic kid. Earlier this year NSW Origin coach Ricky Stuart told of his daughter’s autism. Former dual international Mat Rogers has also spoken of his son’s autism. I know of three journalists with autistic sons, ironically enough all working for a media outlet running stories critical of the Government’s plan.

Identifying these kids early allows two things.

It allows their parents to get them into an early intervention program. And yes, it enables the parents to access the Federal Government’s funding for autistic kids, which might, if you’re lucky, defray a small percentage of the costs. You get $6000 a year from the Federal Government for therapy – enough for about an hour a week. Remember – you need 20 hours a week to be effective, which means parents are up for at least $20,000 a year (some of the therapy is at home, parent-to-child).

Second, it will allow State and Federal Governments to properly identify how many kids in the community do have autism, and structure the provision of therapy better.

In our case, I quit my dream job and we sold our dream home in Sydney to move to Brisbane, where our boy is going to AEIOU, because there was nothing like it in NSW. Sydney only has a handful of early-intervention centres (St Anthony’s at Croydon and Giant Steps to name two of the good ones) but the waiting lists were two years’ long – which defeats the purpose of early intervention.

Identifying autistic children at three is good – but there needs to be a better program of educating GPs and childcare workers how to identify the signs of autistic behaviour even earlier.

And so what if some kids are “overdiagnosed”? Wouldn’t we rather have some children get therapy they might not need (but which might still be reasonably useful), than have a child who desperately needs it miss out?

• This, by the way, is another blood-boiler. Most parents of autistic kids don’t see autism as a mental illness.
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http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/my-three-year-old-autistic-child-is-one-of-the-lucky-ones/
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_Posted using RoarFEED 2012_

 

[GNR4LIFE]

I'm not sure if I followed this right but they're re-categorising it rather than removing it?

Either way, funding money has dried up when it comes to Autism and its wrong. The only children who attract funding money nowdays are ones with physical disabilities

 

[happy_tiger]

They are very close to finding a way to stop the spread of Autism actually

They have found a link to diet and spores which exist in the intestines of Autism sufferers If these spores don't spread and multiply and get into the spinal column which then gets into the brain they are perfectly fine

However the drugs required are drugs that are on the extreme end of the scale to treat people (meaning that we have no antibodies or cures to treat those viruses if they change genetically)

Once they have found drugs to replace these as the last line of defence against viruses , my understanding they will be able to treat (not cure) Autism and control the condition so Autism sufferers can live normal lives

 

[Chris]

I'm not sure if I followed this right but they're re-categorising it rather than removing it?

Either way, funding money has dried up when it comes to Autism and its wrong. The only children who attract funding money nowdays are ones with physical disabilities

I think part of the problem why funds have dried up because doctors were too quick to diagnose kids with Autism because they weren't good enough to find out what their real problem was and with Autism being such a large spectrum, it was easier for them just to label the child Autism, push them into the system and move onto the next child like it was a production line.

My daughter was diagnosed with Autism when she was 18 months old because she wasnt talking. I argued with the hospital's pediatrician and told her she was wrong. She said thats what she's diagnosing her with and gave us papers to hand into centerlink to get payments and pushed to use resources out there for her. I refused to do it because I didn't agree with her diagnosis. Turns out I was right, six years later, other doctors drained the fluid from her ears since she had at birth and what the pediatrician always knew about and her speech has improved out of sight. Doctors now predict she will have a normal life.

How many other kids have been diagnosed with Austism but have other issues?

 

[GNR4LIFE]

I'm not sure if I followed this right but they're re-categorising it rather than removing it?

Either way, funding money has dried up when it comes to Autism and its wrong. The only children who attract funding money nowdays are ones with physical disabilities

I think part of the problem why funds have dried up because doctors were too quick to diagnose kids with Autism because they weren't good enough to find out what their real problem was and with Autism being such a large spectrum, it was easier for them just to label the child Autism, push them into the system and move onto the next child like it was a production line.

My daughter was diagnosed with Autism when she was 18 months old because she wasnt talking. I argued with the hospital's pediatrician and told her she was wrong. She said thats what she's diagnosing her with and gave us papers to hand into centerlink to get payments and pushed to use resources out there for her. I refused to do it because I didn't agree with her diagnosis. Turns out I was right, six years later, other doctors drained the fluid from her ears since she had at birth and what the pediatrician always knew about and her speech has improved out of sight. Doctors now predict she will have a normal life.

How many other kids have been diagnosed with Austism but have other issues?

There are a lot of children (and im not talking about you Chris cos clearly there was something else wrong with your little girl) who suffer as a result of parents in denial over their child's condition. Particularly when the children have behavior issues. The child suffers and doesn't get the help they need due to the parents ignorance

 

[happy_tiger]

We were told not long after my son was born due to many of his behaviours and conditions that they thought he may be autistic On hearing this news I decided to take a backward step away from the business to help my wife through this

But we were fortunate , its turn out he just was like that and grew out of it and he is normal

Maybe all the crying was because he had ESP and could see that Sheens was going to play Moltzen at fullback (sorry I'm not trying to make light of this condition , I understand how hard it was through 18 months of hell of my son's autistic type behaviours)

 

[genoshan]

I have an Autistic son who turns 4 on Sunday. Like others here, I first was in denial and thought he was maybe just a little slower than kids his own age. My wife insisted that we get him tested and we did when he was about a year ago.

Until we had the actual test with a psychologist, I was still denying it. Watching the test and the Dr explaining what was required, it hit me like a ton of bricks, that he was indeed on the spectrum.

Fast forward to today. My wife stays home rather than work to give my son every chance. We have speech therapy, occupational therapy, the Early Intervention Unit and a playgroup with only autistic children. There are days when I just dont know how my wife does it. I struggle after an hour of being his solo caregiver.

The improvements have been massive with all the therapy and work my wife puts in. When he was diagnosed, he was diagnosed as moderate on the scale, but I would now say he is mild. He is super intelligent ( can read books, spell words, count etc ) but socially is a nightmare.

We have cut out gluten and he now eats only 3 foods. The best thing we ever did was buy an ipad for him. The only issue is when he fixates on the ipad. It more a reward system with it, but it works.

Anyway I know i strayed off topic, but any cuts to assistance for any of the Autism spectrums shows a complete lack of understanding. We get $50/week for my wife to be his carer and $7000 in assistance, but this is for a total of 7 years. If we spend the 7k its gone for good or when he turns 7 …

Getting assistance is the hard part. We spend 120 per fortnight on speech, 110 fortnight on OT, so it all adds up quickly, but I would never not spend the money. The improvement is so worth it.

 

[Craegus]

I think part of the problem why funds have dried up because doctors were too quick to diagnose kids with Autism because they weren't good enough to find out what their real problem was and with Autism being such a large spectrum, it was easier for them just to label the child Autism, push them into the system and move onto the next child like it was a production line.

…

How many other kids have been diagnosed with Austism but have other issues?

That is exactly right Chris. Autism has sadly become the new fad in diagnosis. Basically doctors will diagnose a child with it because the parents want there to be a reason for their childs poor behaviour. I am not saying that all children that are diagnosed are either not autistic or have some other medical condition, but there is a large number of children that have been labled because of their parents pushing for diagnosis of something that really isn't there.

In the 90's and early 00's it was ADD and ADHD, and now it has become Autism.

Sadly because of this the funding has dried up because there are too many children in the system to adequately fund.

Though it probably isn't the best decision to reclassify the disorder (there is no way that Aspergers would be removed completely from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders {DSM}) it would have been well discussed befoore the decision was made (DSM-IV was released in 1994 with a text revision in 2000, so DSM-V has really been in the works for nearly 20 years). And trust me, having studied the manual at Uni (all 970 odd pages of it), those who write it know exactly what they are talking about.

 

[weststigers4life]

Autistic Boy Becomes Basketball Hero

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjTob53BElQ
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One day this kid will never forget.