3 ms·

“In practice, reliably distinguishing ASD from non-ASD is problematic.“ Agreed, but it’s not clear why that is relevant. Whether it is hard to diagnose or not

• skissane 6y ago
  Well, if we view the "spectrum" as including broad autism phenotype (BAP), and note that that the boundary between ASD and BAP can be very difficult to reliably determine, that seems to me to support the "distortion on a spectrum" viewpoint. By contrast, if BAP didn't exist, or if there was a highly reliable test to distinguish it from ASD, that would not support that viewpoint. So the reliability of distinguishing BAP from ASD does actually seem to me to be relevant to the issue. I think the answer to "whether the condition is discrete or distortion on a spectrum" is likely to be "both". I think the most severe cases – such as non-verbal classic Kannerian autism with intellectual impairment – are likely discrete conditions (albeit not a single discrete condition, more likely several). By contrast, the lower severity cases are likely to just be the extreme end of the normal variation of traits in the general population. I think, one of the many mistakes made by the authors of the DSM-5, was creating a single diagnosis encompassing everything from the most severe to the mildest cases, when it seems likely that rather different things are going on at those two extremes. There's a bunch of research that supports that view, see for example: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10803-017-3451-3 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10803-017-3451-...
  • iainmerrick 6y ago
    So taxonicity is dimensional, not categorical? :)