[Darth Denkay]

I recently read an article that indicated there is some thought that autism, asperger's syndrome, PDD, and one other (can't think of it right now) may all be collapsed into a single diagnosis of autism. I think I've got the article bookmarked at work. I'm not sure how I feel about this. Right now diagnoses are based on visible symptoms so we differentiate between diagnoses that might physiologically be the same but express themselves differently in individuals based on other neurological factors. I think (when we have a better grasp on neurological causes) we will likely find a lot of similarities between diagnoses than are necessarily apparent now.

On the other hand, there are some differences in how different diagnoses are treated - are these differences significant enough for separate diagnoses to be useful?

FInally, should diagnoses be based on symptoms. Basically three different ways that mental illness could be categorized (physiological basis, treatment, expression). I also don't know what impact changing diagnoses will have on individuals with those diagnoses. What will it be like to be told that now you don't have asperger's, you have autism.

As much as we want to believe that the DSM provides an objective classification system that simply isn't true. Another diagnosis that is also being debated is GID - should it be a diagnosis at all - if so do criteria need to be changed.

I guess this is a bit (a large bit) of a derail. Let me know if anyone is interested in the article.