Farewell, Asperger’s!

Discover tells me the “nerd syndrome” (or whatever we’re calling it in today’s papers) is no longer listed in the DSM, the “Bible of Psychiatry.” Instead, it’s now subsumed into “autism spectrum disorder” – one of several controversial edits:

Other proposed changes include officially classifying binge eating as disorder—but not obesity. Similarly, there’s a proposal to include “hypersexual disorder,” but neither sex nor Internet use (not you, dear reader) would fall under the new “behavioral addiction” category (though gambling would).

In another significant revision, the new DSM would add a childhood disorder called temper dysregulation disorder with dysphoria, a recommendation that grew out of recent findings that many wildly aggressive, irritable children who have been given a diagnosis of bipolar disorder do not have it.

Tags: psychiatry