This article needs to be updated. The reason given is: This diagnosis now part of autism spectrum for DSM and ICD classifications.(February 2021) |
Asperger syndrome (AS) was formerly a separate diagnosis under autism spectrum disorder. Under the DSM-5 and ICD-11, patients formerly diagnosable with Asperger syndrome are diagnosable with Autism Spectrum Disorder. The term is considered offensive by some autistic individuals.[1] It was named after Hans Asperger (1906–80), who was an Austrian psychiatrist and pediatrician. An English psychiatrist, Lorna Wing, popularized the term "Asperger's syndrome" in a 1981 publication; the first book in English on Asperger syndrome was written by Uta Frith in 1991 and the condition was subsequently recognized in formal diagnostic manuals later in the 1990s.[1]
Details[2] of Hans Asperger's actions[3][4] as a psychiatrist in Nazi era Austria, made public in 2018, incited debate[5] of the syndrome's name and public lobbying for a renaming of the syndrome.[6]