BACKGROUND The question of whether Asperger syndrome can be distinguished from autism has attracted much debate and may even incur delay in diagnosis and intervention. Accordingly, there has been a proposal for Asperger syndrome to be subsumed under autism in the forthcoming Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition, in 2013. One approach to resolve this question has ...

Autism-spectrum disorders are a group of biologically based behavioural syndromes of childhood onset that are characterised by qualitative impairments in reciprocal social interaction and verbal and non-verbal communication, together with a restricted and repetitive range of behaviours, interests and activities – the so-called ‘triad of impairments’ (Wing 1981). Among individuals with ‘high-fun...

With publication of the fourth edition of the Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (DSM-IV), standardized criteria for Asperger Disorder, a putative subtype of Pervasive Developmental Disorder, are now available. This paper examines the four cases Asperger originally presented in his seminal paper (1991/1994), using DSM-IV criteria to determine whether a diagnosis of Autistic o...

We asked adults with Asperger Syndrome to judge pictorial stimuli in terms of certain social stereotypes to evaluate to what extent they have access to this type of social knowledge. Sixteen adults with Asperger Syndrome and 24 controls, matched for age and intelligence, were presented with sets of faces, bodies and objects, which had to be rated on a 7-point scale in terms of trustworthiness, ...

INTRODUCTION I first heard the term ‘Asperger syndrome’ 20 years ago when I accompanied my sister-in-law Elizabeth and her son Ivan on a visit to a child psychiatrist. Ivan was 19 years old and had an odd pattern of behaviours since childhood. As none of the experts he had seen had been able to clearly diagnose his problem, we hoped that this new consultation would give a better insight into hi...

Asperger syndrome (AS) was first described under the title of autistic psychopathy by the Austrian physician Hans Asperger (1944). Despite the growing interest in it, its nosological status remains uncertain. It is not clear to what extent it differs from autism, although some authorities have proposed that it is part of the "autistic continuum" (Wing, 1981). The DSMIII-R (American Psychiatric ...

Asperger syndrome is an uncommon condition, but probably more common than classic autism (the only published population study estimated prevalence at 36 per 10 000 children for Asperger syndrome and 5 per 10 000 for autism (Ehlers & Gillberg, 1993)). Misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis of this disorder is a serious problem, and the average age at diagnosis is several years later than for autism (...