Published on 12, July, 2020
Many years ago my local AS support group had to make a decision between ICD-10 and DSM-IV as their primary reference manual. We chose ICD-10.
One reason for choosing ICD-10 is that it's already used by GPs, school nurses, and pediatric consultants (who are the first lines of contact in the medical profession) whereas DSM-IV tends to be confined to the bookshelves of folk who specialise in psychiatry and mental health rather than working in general medicine.
The second reason is that ICD-10 is FREE and available on the internet whereas DSM-IV costs ££££ as it's a commercial product sold by the American Psychiatric Association.
After DSM-5 was released I have had numerous parents ask me where they can get hold of it for free, because it's now the norm for ASD diagnosis in Britain. A copy of DSM-5 and DSM-IV are kept on the bookshelf of my local AS support group but I have to constantly remind parents that if they want a copy themselves then they must pay ££££ for it whereas ICD-10 and ICD-11 are available for FREE on the internet.
Why then is DSM now more popular in Britain than ICD is when you have to pay ££££ for it?
Probably less so it's more popular in Britian, but more than the online community is more DSM focussed as many now adopt this one. The US is DSM based generally and there is a large mass of US based people on autism online communities, so if someone visits online forums, they are likely to encounter it a lot more.
On top of that personally I think the DSM format is pretty clear, concise, and even if the book costs money, the individual criterias for diagnostics are fairly easily obtainable and easy to understand in black and white terms, and is also easily translatable to online communities.
Leach said:Probably less so it's more popular in Britian, but more than the online community is more DSM focussed as many now adopt this one. The US is DSM based generally and there is a large mass of US based people on autism online communities, so if someone visits online forums, they are likely to encounter it a lot more.
There are online communities that are based in Britain and other countries apart from the US.
Your scenario is almost analgous that the rest of the world should use fahrenheit for temperature, rather than celsius, because it's what American online communities mostly use.
Well yes, I never stated there aren't any non-US communites. But there is a large foundation of US based communities that all reference DSM5 as they developed it. Take reddit for example, the US Autism based forums are very large, the UK one is pretty miniscule. So everyone just gravitates to the one that references DSM.
That and my second point also stands.
Also I never stated at any point that other people SHOULD use DSM5, the thread simply asked why do people ask for it. I gave my experience as to why so many communities I come across online reference DSM5 - I made no reference as to whether one SHOULD use DSM5 or not, I just stated my view on the diagnostic criteria of DSM5.
Leach said:What I do potentially see from the forums I get involved with is the UK has much more of a problem of actually finding a specialist capable of dealing with ASD for everyone in all areas, whereas US areas can ahve problems with "specialists" not really being specialists, or having a very generic view of ASD and therefore diagnose/don't diagnose without a real capability to do so.
A bit of inside information I have is that the NAS prefers DSM-5 over ICD-10 and ICD-11. This is because the NAS basically functions as a government service provider for children who fit the criteria for its schools and adults who require residential care services as there is public money available for these people, but the NAS doesn't like having to deal with people with Asperger Syndrome or other forms of ASD where there is next to no public money available.
Therefore a linear graded system of ASD diagnosis (as used by DSM-5) is more beneficial to the interests of the NAS than a differentiated system of ASD diagnosis (as used by ICD-10 and ICD-11) is. Anybody with a DSM-5 Level 1 Autism will be handled by the NAS as the lowest priority and only thrown the crumbs as priority will be given to providing services for people with a higher level diagnosis where there is usually more public money available for them.