A-Champ: Need your help on DSM5 Survey

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----- Forwarded Message ----- To: Karp Sent: Saturday, September 8, 2012 10:00 AM Subject: Urgent: Need your help on DSM5 Survey

Urgent: Need your help on DSM5 Survey

Need Help on DSM5 SurveyMore InfoPlease forward to your physicians A coalition of groups within the autism community is extremely concerned about potential impacts of the proposed criteria for Autism Spectrum Disorders in the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual - 5th Edition. The new criteria are supposed to be finalized by December 2012 for May

2013 publication. Since February 2012, five studies have been published indicating that the proposed DSM-5 ASD criteria will significantly reduce the number of

people diagnosed with ASD compared to the current DSM-IVTR criteria:McPartland and Volkmar - 39.4% decreaseWorley and Matson - 32.2% decreaseMatson et al. - 47.8% decreaseGibbs et al. - 23.4% decreaseTaheri and - 37% decrease The Field Trials which identified 83 children with ASD, were reported by Dr. Swedo, chair of the APA's Workgroup on Neurodevelopmental Disorders. They indicate that the decrease in the number of identified ASD cases using the proposed criteria would be in the single digits, but that this would be counter-balanced by the inclusion of some cases that had been missed by the DSM-IVTR. The Workgroup is concerned primarily with the new criteria accurately diagnosing new cases

of ASD as they present in the community and does not think that the decreases in the published studies are accurate. Currently, there is no data on adult patients using the new

criteria. Online Survey to Collect Data on New ASD Cases Using the Proposed Criteria Our friends at SafeMinds and the Holland Center want to collect and analyze much more data on the proposed criteria through an online survey to assess its impact on autism diagnosis in the community. This survey can be used by any clinician who speaks English anywhere in the world. The data will be made available to the NDD Workgroup directly. Cases are needed urgently given the tight time frame for publication of the proposed criteria! Please help us spread this letter and this link to any clinician who diagnoses people with autism: http://capwiz.com/a-champ/utr/1/ECPHSCFMFN/LJPNSCFMPP/8686366261 We would like hundreds of clinicians around the world

to enter a few cases each. The survey is designed to be quick and straightforward. Please forward this message to friends and family and post on Facebook and other social networks. And it you support the work of the Autism Action Network please make a donation at www.autismactionnetwork.org

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