Take Autism Out of DSM

Psychiatrists want to change the definition of autism as described in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM). The DSM is a psychiatric coding book. It lists disorders that are thought to be psychiatric in nature. When autism was first defined it was called “Cold Mother Syndrome” and thought to be psychiatric in origin. Seventy years later, we know a lot more about autism. IT IS NOT PSYCHIATRIC, IT IS NEUROLOGICAL!

The diagnosis should be removed from the DSM. Psychiatrists should not be defining it. Autism should be categorized as a medical disorder just like diabetes and hypertension. Psychiatric disorders are subjective, have no way of objectively being defined and thought to have no underlying medical cause.

The only treatment for psychiatric diagnoses is psychiatric drugs. Writers of the DSM have been exposed for taking money from the very pharmaceutical companies that will gain from selling more of the drugs recommended for these arbitrary psychiatric diagnoses.

Moving the diagnosis from the DSM should not decrease the availability of services. At The Block Center, autism spectrum is not considered to be a psychiatric problem, so the autism label is not used. Services can still be accessed using the real medical diagnosis.

Parents of autistic children should unite against this disservice of categorizing their children with a psychiatric problem.