The DSM V, http://www.dsm5.org/about/pages/dsmvoverview.aspx, which is due to be released in May of 2013, includes a new, more concise definition and diagnosis of Autism. Rather than having multiple categories, this new manual will only have Autism Spectrum Disorder, ASD.
Autism Spectrum Disorder - Must meet criteria A, B, C, and D:
A. Persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction across contexts, not accounted for by general developmental delays, and manifest by all 3 of the following:
1. Deficits in social-emotional reciprocity; ranging from abnormal social approach and failure of normal back and forth conversation through reduced sharing of interests, emotions, and affect and response to total lack of initiation of social interaction,
2. Deficits in nonverbal communicative behaviors used for social interaction; ranging from poorly integrated- verbal and nonverbal communication, through abnormalities in eye contact and body-language, or deficits in understanding and use of nonverbal communication, to total lack of facial expression or gestures.
3. Deficits in developing and maintaining relationships, appropriate to developmental level (beyond those with caregivers); ranging from difficulties adjusting behavior to suit different social contexts through difficulties in sharing imaginative play and in making friends to an apparent absence of interest in people
B. Restricted, repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, or activities as manifested by at least two of the following:
1. Stereotyped or repetitive speech, motor movements, or use of objects; (such as simple motor stereotypies, echolalia, repetitive use of objects, or idiosyncratic phrases).
2. Excessive adherence to routines, ritualized patterns of verbal or nonverbal behavior, or excessive resistance to change; (such as motoric rituals, insistence on same route or food, repetitive questioning or extreme distress at small changes).
3. Highly restricted, fixated interests that are abnormal in intensity or focus; (such as strong attachment to or preoccupation with unusual objects, excessively circumscribed or perseverative interests).
4. Hyper-or hypo-reactivity to sensory input or unusual interest in sensory aspects of environment; (such as apparent indifference to pain/heat/cold, adverse response to specific sounds or textures, excessive smelling or touching of objects, fascination with lights or spinning objects).
C. Symptoms must be present in early childhood (but may not become fully manifest until social demands exceed limited capacities)
D. Symptoms together limit and impair everyday functioning.For more information, please consult the following link:
Unusual Brain Growth is an Important Correlate of Autism
While the behavior of children with autism is often dramatically impaired, at first look, their brains look remarkably normal. They have no conclusively telltale pathology like the plaques and tangles of Alzheimer’s disease nor does any single transmitter system seem to be markedly impaired, as happens with Parkinson’s disease. In this respect, autism resembles other psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia, where the neuropathology underlying the disorder is subtle. While the lack of adequate postmortem brain material has limited efforts to understand the cellular pathology of autism, increasingly sophisticated magnetic resonance imaging studies of greater numbers of younger and younger children with autism are making headway in defining abnormal trajectories of brain development in autism. An important view has emerged that altered rates of brain maturation, rather than the brain’s condition at any one point in time, are most characteristic of autism.
