By David Gorn, California Healthline
A recurring theme at the annual California Association for Behavior Analysis conference starting today in Burlingame likely will be the new definition of autism in the medical community.
The national guidelines for doctors and other clinicians was updated last year. DSM-5 is the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, put out by the American Psychiatric Association.
In DSM-5, there is a new category in the autism spectrum -- social communication disorder, or SCD. Since there are no clinical guidelines for treating SCD, autism advocates worry the new designation could be used by insurance companies to stop covering applied behavior analysis (ABA therapy) in treating autism disorder.
"It's likely a small percentage [of SCD children among those with autism spectrum disorder], but it definitely will affect some people," said Karen Fessel, director of the Autism Health Insurance Project. "There are no guidelines put out by insurance companies yet, so likely there will be no adjustments till October this year."