News Report | April 14, 2019
Revised DSM-5 Definition Of Autism Reduces Diagnosis By 20%
Approximately 20% of those who would have received a diagnosis of "autism" under the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition (DSM-4) are no longer included under the definition included in the fifth edition of the DSM (DSM-5) as adopted in 2013. The DSM-5 removed specific instances of Asperger’s syndrome; childhood disintegrative disorder; and pervasive developmental disorder, not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS); and replaced these with a broad "autism spectrum disorder" classification that is assigned a level of severity by health care professionals.
These findings were reported in "How Has DSM-5 Affected Autism . . .