There are two manuals that are commonly used by health professionals around the world to diagnose autism.
These are the International Classification of Diseases (ICD), published by the World Health Organisation, and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), edited by the American Psychiatric Association. These manuals are updated regularly as new research findings lead to revisions of diagnostic criteria.
International Classification of Diseases (ICD)
The current version of this manual is ICD-10. It is currently under revision (as part of an ongoing revision process) and the release date for ICD-11 is 2017.
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)
The current version of this manual is the DSM-5. Changes to the definition of autism in the DSM-5 caused some concern among people with autism. Below you will find information on these changes.
You can read the diagnostic criteria for autism in full using the links below: