7 ms·

> It is time to realise that ‘autism’ has become a ragbag of different conditions. Look, I get it and somewhat agree. However, the reason for the diagnosis (a

> It is time to realise that ‘autism’ has become a ragbag of different conditions. Look, I get it and somewhat agree. However, the reason for the diagnosis (and any diagnosis) is treatment. Maybe there are two different conditions that require speech, occupational, and behavior therapy to different degrees, however, in terms of convincing insurance companies in the US to cover those having a single diagnosis makes everything easier. It's not as if a separate diagnosis would change how a speech therapist interacts with a child. I applaud efforts to figure out what is going on and to categorize. But I also think that practically the ragbag diagnosis makes treatment a lot easier to access for patients.

dustbunny 1y ago
This reminds me of the "America is run by Lawyers, China is run by engineers quote" We can't let Lawyering/word smithing/insurance manipulation restrain our access to the truth.
ender341341 1y ago
> It's not as if a separate diagnosis would change how a speech therapist interacts with a child. This is the really big part that a lot of people seem to miss when complaining about the changes in DSMV. Previously there were dozens of conditions that had nearly the exact same symptoms and super similar treatments that may work. The change basically said, for these given symptoms here's a bunch of treatments that may work. I've known a few people that were diagnosed as something that would now be under autism, but because they had that diagnosis that didn't happen to include some of the treatments that actually ended up working for them they ended up not finding them until they happened to get a doctor that said "you know these diagnoses are really close, lets try this instead". From talking with doctors I don't think I've heard anyone disagree that autism is almost assuredly a cover term for many different things similar to cancer not being a singular disease. The difference right now is that we don't have any concrete test to differentiate between any of the autisms yet, just various sets of treatments that work to varying degrees for different people.
BergAndCo 1y ago
They figured out that autism is actually four completely distinct disease clusters with four completely different symptomologies, with some overlap of symptoms in the middle. One of the disease clusters correlates with Fragile X retardation. The idea that we clump together an actual genetic condition that causes retardation with 3 other disorders is ludicrous. Therapists need to understand that many disorders can produce "autism-like" downstream effects, just like many things could cause anxiety or depression. Not understanding the disorders doesn't "help patients". https://www.princeton.edu/news/2025/07/09/major-autism-study-uncovers-biologically-distinct-subtypes-paving-way-precision https://www.princeton.edu/news/2025/07/09/major-autism-study...

dustbunny 1y ago

This reminds me of the "America is run by Lawyers, China is run by engineers quote" We can't let Lawyering/word smithing/insurance manipulation restrain our access to the truth.

ender341341 1y ago

> It's not as if a separate diagnosis would change how a speech therapist interacts with a child. This is the really big part that a lot of people seem to miss when complaining about the changes in DSMV. Previously there were dozens of conditions that had nearly the exact same symptoms and super similar treatments that may work. The change basically said, for these given symptoms here's a bunch of treatments that may work. I've known a few people that were diagnosed as something that would now be under autism, but because they had that diagnosis that didn't happen to include some of the treatments that actually ended up working for them they ended up not finding them until they happened to get a doctor that said "you know these diagnoses are really close, lets try this instead". From talking with doctors I don't think I've heard anyone disagree that autism is almost assuredly a cover term for many different things similar to cancer not being a singular disease. The difference right now is that we don't have any concrete test to differentiate between any of the autisms yet, just various sets of treatments that work to varying degrees for different people.

BergAndCo 1y ago

They figured out that autism is actually four completely distinct disease clusters with four completely different symptomologies, with some overlap of symptoms in the middle. One of the disease clusters correlates with Fragile X retardation. The idea that we clump together an actual genetic condition that causes retardation with 3 other disorders is ludicrous. Therapists need to understand that many disorders can produce "autism-like" downstream effects, just like many things could cause anxiety or depression. Not understanding the disorders doesn't "help patients". https://www.princeton.edu/news/2025/07/09/major-autism-study-uncovers-biologically-distinct-subtypes-paving-way-precision https://www.princeton.edu/news/2025/07/09/major-autism-study...