Autism spectrum disorders in the DSM-V: better or worse than the DSM-IV?

The DSM-V-committee has recently published proposed diagnostic criteria for autism spectrum disorders. We examine these criteria in some detail. We believe that the DSM-committee has overlooked a number of important issues, including social imagination, diagnosis in infancy and adulthood, and the possibility that girls and women with autism may continue to go unrecognised or misdiagnosed under the new manual. We conclude that a number of changes need to be made in order that the DSM-V-criteria might be used reliably and validly in clinical practice and research.