Asperger's syndrome

A pattern of behaviour characterized by detachment from everyday life, problematic personal relationships and a limited ability to communicate, unconventional behaviour, humourlessness, accompanied by an encyclopaedic knowledge and pedantic knowledge of an obscure subject. These symptoms may be a variant of autism. Patients suffer ridicule because the symptoms are regarded as the manifestation of a tiresome personality rather than as a medical condition.

According to Autism Speaks:

1944: Austrian pediatrician Hans Asperger described four strikingly similar young patients. They had normal to high intelligence. But they lacked social skills and had extremely narrow interests. The children also shared a tendency to be clumsy.

1981: British psychiatrist Lorna Wing published a series of similar case studies. In it, she coined the term “Asperger syndrome.”

1994: Asperger syndrome listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-4).

2013: Asperger syndrome and other previously separate types of autism folded into one umbrella diagnosis of “autism spectrum disorder” in DSM-5.