Asperger's and over-zealousness

[Guest guest]

I found this article

http://autism.suite101.com/article.cfm/melatonin_deficiency_in_asd

and notice the remark

" [researchers] found reduced plasma melatonin levels in 65% of individuals with

ASD " .

I wonder about the reasoning. Imagine the following scenario.

Man suffers long-term sleep problems and eventually decides to go to the doctor.

The doctor is at a loss, so refers him to a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist can

find no obvious sign of depression or anxiety, so decides to refer for an

assessment of Asperger's syndrome, as is the way these days. The patient gets

told his score defines him as 'borderline Asperger's', which a huge proportion

of the population would surely be defined to be, were they to undergo the

assessment. His Asperger's is subtly causing his depression, and he didn't

realise how depressed he had become, he gets told; hence his sleep problems. In

fact, it was simply that he had, all along, a physiological predisposition for

sleep problems. The doctors had put the cart before the horse.

Whatever the neurophysiological rationale, this kind of sloppy thinking and

over-zealousness for positive diagnosis, I am sorry to say, has gone rather too

far.