This from the Exeter Express last week (your area isn't it Jimjams?)
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Medical experts facing scrutiny
More specialists in a rare disorder are needed in rural areas such as Devon, one of the county's MPs has told Parliament.
Angela Browning, MP for Tiverton and Honiton, whose son has Asperger's Syndrome, challenged ministers to end a situation which sees many sufferers misdiagnosed as schizophrenic. She claimed people with the condition were administered the wrong drugs and being wrongly admitted to mental institutions.
Mrs Browning, vice president of the National Autistic Society and a national expert on the issue, is a long-term carer for her 32-year-old son, Robin, who has Asperger's.
She said: "It has been a lifetime crusade for me. Robin is doing very well now."
While people with Asperger's Syndrome are often intelligent and can excel at maths and science, they have problems socialising and their behaviour can appear similar to that of schizophrenics.
Mrs Browning called for the Government to take action in a Commons debate last year, but is concerned at the lack of progress the medical profession has made in recognising Asperger's.
The Tory MP believes the issue is particularly acute in rural areas such as Devon where there is a lack of specialists.
Last week, she stepped up her campaign with five Commons questions on the issue to Health Minister Stephen Ladyman.
Mrs Browning said that since her debate in September, Aylesbury MP David Liddington had raised the case of a constituent with Asperger's Syndrome who had been put in a mental institution.
She said: "There was very little recognition in the minister's reply that there was a common problem of people with Asperger's Syndrome being misdiagnosed as schizophrenic. There are too many cases of people being misdiagnosed.
"I have had them in my constituency and I get casework from around the country about so-called expert psychiatrists who see an Asperger person and assume they are schizophrenic.
"I suggested in my debate that there should be some analysis of how many of these cases there are. I'm now asking again what assessment has been made of the appropriate qualifications and experience of psychiatrists treating patients who have an autistic spectrum disorder."
She said she has come across cases in Devon where psychiatrists had ignored a diagnosis of Asperger's Syndrome.
In the case of her son, the condition was not initially recognised. Mrs Browning said: "He was not diagnosed until he was 19. We knew he had a problem but nobody could say what it was. That is quite common.
"He hasn't had the problems I have identified here. He has been fortunate that he has had me to make the case for him whenever he has had problems with the medical profession."
Mrs Browning asked what analysis the Department of Health had made into the long-term effects of drugs to patients misdiagnosed as schizophrenic. "It is really a criminal act for somebody to be treated with these very strong drugs," she said.
Mrs Browning has also questioned what criteria were required for doctors and psychiatrists who offered themselves as expert witnesses in assessments of autistic spectrum disorders. She has been prompted to do this after seeing evidence some experts know less about the condition than they claim.
She said: "I will start off with the minister but will be wanting to talk to the Institute of Psychiatry and the Royal College when I get the answer. I think you should have peer recognition to offer yourself as an expert.
"I am keen to weed out people who frankly get paid very handsome fees for appearing as expert witnesses."
Hansard referemnce here