New Definition of Autism May Exclude Many, Study Suggests.

[GreenPartyVoter]

4. I have an Aspie-like son. Never formally diagnosed, but healthcare

providers frequently suggested that he was very similar.

I'm a little unclear, here, as to the changes. Are they dispensing with the tag of Asperger's altogether, and just calling everyone on the spectrum autistic? I don't see how that would be of much use, because then the diagnosis of autistic would be utterly imprecise.

I'm bipolar, but officially I am BP2, which is distinguished from BP1 and other mood disorders on the spectrum by a certain set of criteria. To start calling all of us on the spectrum just "bipolar" would not only be useless it would be dangerous, because certain meds can be used for one type but not another, for instance. (I realize this isn't quite the same as the proposed changes with "autistic" but it's the closest I can make sense of things based on my own experience.)