The American Psychiatric Association's formal system for the classification and diagnosis of psychiatric, mental health and developmental conditions, which includes criteria for diagnosing autism. The 5^th edition, published in 2013, dispensed with the diagnostic sub-types of autism (e.g. Asperger Syndrome) seen in earlier versions. The DSM-5 approach to classifying and diagnosing autism treats it as a continuous spectrum and uses severity scores and specifiers to characterise each individual’s strengths and weaknesses.