[Asperger syndrome--an overview of diagnostic criteria]

Asperger syndrome is an autistic disorder which was first described in 1944 without further acceptance in the literature over almost four decades. Following several publications in the "80's, the disorder became more widely known. Asperger syndrome was introduced into ICD-10 and DSM-IV as a new diagnosis in 1988 and 1994, respectively. Several authors developed own criteria. Until now, some of the diagnostic criteria of Asperger syndrome remain controversial. We present a survey and a comparison of the criteria in the classification of DSM-IV, ICD-10 and of other authors. Six criteria are widely accepted, but there are divergent opinions about the criteria "intelligence" and "speech development".