Misdiagnosis of Autism
| About misdiagnosis: When checking for a misdiagnosis of Autism or confirming a diagnosis of Autism, it is useful to consider what other medical conditions might be possible misdiagnoses or other alternative conditions relevant to diagnosis. These alternate diagnoses of Autism may already have been considered by your doctor or may need to be considered as possible alternative diagnoses or candidates for misdiagnosis of Autism. For a general overview of misdiagnosis issues for all diseases, see Overview of Misdiagnosis. |
Alternative diagnoses list for Autism: For a diagnosis of Autism, the following list of conditions have been mentioned in sources as possible alternative diagnoses to consider during the diagnostic process for Autism:
- Pervasive Developmental Disorder
- Pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified - PDD:NOS
- Asperger syndrome
- Childhood disintegrative disorder
- Rett syndrome
- Deafness - social response may be impaired because of hearing difficulty.
- Hearing loss (see Hearing impairment)
- Schizophrenia - though usually schizophrenia arises later in life than autism.
- Language delay
- Language disorder
- Speech delay
- Developmental delay (see Developmental problems)
- Selective Mutism
- Mental retardation
- Stereotypic movement disorder
Autism as an alternative diagnosis: The other diseases for which Autism is listed as a possible alternative diagnosis in their lists include:
- Asperger syndrome
- Auditory Processing Disorder
- Childhood disintegrative disorder
- Landau-Kleffner Syndrome
- Rett's syndrome
- Schizoid Personality Disorder
- Schizotypal Personality Disorder
Discussion of diagnosis/misdiagnosis of Autism: Specialists may also consider other conditions that produce many of the same behaviors and symptoms as autism, such as Rett's Disorder or Asperger's Disorder. Rett's Disorder is a progressive brain disease that only affects girls but, like autism, produces repetitive hand movements and leads to loss of language and social skills. Children with Asperger's Disorder are very like high-functioning children with autism. Although they have repetitive behaviors, severe social problems, and clumsy movements, their language and intelligence are usually intact. Unlike autism, the symptoms of Asperger's Disorder typically appear later in childhood. 1
Medical news summaries about misdiagnosis of Autism: The following medical news items are relevant to misdiagnosis of Autism:
Misdiagnosis cases for Autism:
No cases available yet.
Footnotes:
1. excerpt from Autism: NIMH
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