How a Diagnosis is Made DSM-IV Criteria

DIAGNOSTIC AND STATISTICAL MANUAL OF MENTAL DISORDERS
 

DSM-IV Criteria


Official Category in DSM-IV: Pervasive Developmental Disorder
 

  • Autistic Disorder
  • Asperger’s Disorder
  • Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS)
  • Childhood Disintegrative Disorder (4-12 yrs onset) (CDD)
  • Rett’s Disorder
     

Informal Category Not in DSM-IV: Autism Spectrum Disorders
 

  • Autistic Disorder
  • Asperger’s Disorder
  • Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified
  • Accurate distinctions between these outside a research setting unlikely. Need a functional definition in social, language, adaptive and problem behavior domains instead Childhood Disintegrative


Diagnostic criteria for 299.00 Autistic Disorder
 

  1. A total of six (or more) items from 1, 2, and 3, with at least two from 1, and one each from 2 and 3.
  2. Delays or abnormal functioning in at least one of the following areas, with onset prior to age 3 years:
     
  • Social interaction
  • Language as used in social communication, or
  • Symbolic or imaginative play
  1. Qualitative impairment in social interaction:
     
    1. Marked impairment in the use of multiple nonverbal behaviors such as eye-to-eye gaze, facial expression, body postures, and gestures to regulate social interaction
    2. Failure to develop peer relationships appropriate to developmental level
    3. A lack of spontaneous seeking to share enjoyment, interests, or achievements with other people (e.g., by a lack of showing, bringing, or pointing out objects of interest)
    4. Lack of social or emotional reciprocity
       
  2. Qualitative impairment in communication:
     
    1. Delay in, or total lack of, the development of spoken language (not accompanied by an attempt to compensate through alternative modes of communication such as gesture or mime)
    2. In individuals with adequate speech, marked impairment in the ability to initiate or sustain a conversation with others
    3. Stereotyped and repetitive use of language or idiosyncratic language
    4. Lack of varied, spontaneous make-believe play or social imitative play appropriate to developmental level
       
  3. Restricted repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behavior, interests, and activities:
     
    1. Encompassing preoccupation with one or more stereotyped and restricted patterns of interest that is abnormal either in intensity or focus
    2. Apparent inflexible adherence to specific, nonfunctional routines or rituals. 
    3. Stereotyped and repetitive motor mannerism (e.g., hand or finger flapping or twisting, or complex whole-body movements).  
    4. Persistent preoccupation with parts of objects
 

 
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