Under changes proposed this week to psychiatry's diagnostic manual, Asperger's syndrome would no longer be a separate diagnosis, and would instead be grouped into the autism-spectrum-disorders category.

Asperger's syndrome is a developmental disorder on the autism spectrum that affects a person's ability to read social cues and communicate with others. Individuals with Asperger's may have very strong, all-consuming interests in specific topics. It became a separate diagnosis in the Diagno...