Failure of Asperger's Syndrome Management as a Result of Misdiagnosis

Misdiagnosis by physicians of the various diseases and disorders is a critical issueand may lead to failure of the management; since it could be life threaten. Moreover, it could have a great impact on the social and economic life as a result of misunderstanding by community (Atwood, 2007). Asperger syndrome is one of those disorders that fall under the spectrum of overlapping disorders (Atwood, 2006). Asperger's syndrome (AS) is one of those disorders that falls under the spectrum of overlapping disorders. AS is a behavioral disorder characterized by difficulties in communication and misunderstanding of non-verbal feelings. AS patient believes everything literally; and actually, act on it literally. The scientific community has had a very difficult time in accepting Asperger's syndrome as being a distinct disorder. What was worse than the community's rejection, it was the fact that although many neurologists and psychologists believed that Asperger's syndrome is a different form of Autism, they are treating both disorders using the same programs and medications. American Psychiatric Association (APA) classified AS twice; the first classification confirmed that AS falls under Autism classification. Thereafter second classification was approved in the fourth Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-4) and AS was called Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Recently High Function Autism (HFA) has become the dominant diagnosis for AS according to the fifth Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5). Depending on the opinions of different specialists (neurologists as well as psychiatrists), there has been confusion about classifying AS as an independent disease. This search has concentrated on conducting a clinical work in Benghazi to clarify the confusion in diagnosis between Autism and AS. Moreover, it sets out to evaluate if the research samples assume that Asperger Syndrome can be classified as a type of Autism, High Functioning Autism or an independent syndrome. In this study, data was collected from questionnaires and the sample consisted of group of neurologists, psychiatrists, Psychologists, who working in Benghazi / Libya. The outcome of the analysis revealed that there are obvious different viewpoints about Asperger's Syndrome, and this conflict on AS diagnosis strongly influence the way of dealing with AS patients. But it has been found that there are no adverse consequences which result from variations in viewpoints about AS.