Comments on: How would you go about getting an Autism diagnosis for a young adult?

By: Madame X

Madame X — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 09:51:59 +0000

Is he interested in being evaluated? As an adult, this will need to be his choice. Besides that, this is difficult to answer as it wasn’t mentioned whether he has insurance or not. If he does, the first step would be to obtain a list of mental health providers who do evaluations from the insurance company. If he has managed care, you’d need a referral from his primary care physician.

If he does not have insurance, you’ll need to do some research on mental health clinics in the area. He’s still under 21, so if you can locate something like a Child Development Clinic, they would be able to evaluate and diagnose. Some avenues to look into for a clinic would be local hospitals and universities. Googling is also a great resource. Just google your city/state and autism diagnosis, treatment, etc. Just know that without insurance, these evaluations can be expensive.

good luck!
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By: Nick Martin

Nick Martin — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 09:16:59 +0000

there are certain biochemical markers and groupings of markers that are associated with autism. In the interview process and physical exam, the signs and symptoms associated with autism is not as telling(associated with signs and symptoms of know autistic characteristics) in atypical presentations of autism. On the helpful side there is not many atypical presentations but mostly variations of the degree of pathological biochemical pathways that lead to variable treatment outcomes from standard treatment regimens. Remember that abnormal metabolic pathways leads to abnormal enzymatic products which occurs in many diseases and is often referred to as diseases of polymorphism. To place a polymorphic patient in a specific disease category,such as autism, one must have the accepted criteria of physical and laboratory presentations and the patient must meet an accepted number of the total known criteria. Since a physicians who treats Autism seldom breaks down his diagnoses into anything more than the delayed ability to conform the speed to which they acquire certain developmental milestones. The intelligence of these children is often superior to their peers, but the social skills are usually lacking. Your question requires a longer answer than I have given you,or have time to give you.
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many books and papers and my own research while treating autism.

By: Heidi N

Heidi N — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 09:09:59 +0000

Go to http://www.generationrescue.org They help people find local doctors and services.

Also, if he is totally broke, you can call Social Security Administration. They do evaluations, but almost everyone I know has to sue to get them to properly diagnose and get labelled disabled. The odd thing is that everyone I know who sued, won. I know of no one who ever got anything from SSI who did not repeatedly appeal, even though they were so disabled they were out of work for years, so just warning you that it may be a difficult process to go through them.

I would try Generation Rescue first.
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