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Diagnosis of Autism in Transgender and Gender-diverse Adults

According to a new study published in Nature Communications, transgender and gender-diverse adults had a substantially higher likelihood of being diagnosed as autistic than their cisgender counterparts. 

Researchers at the University of Cambridge’s Autism Research Centre analysed five data sets, including one with more than 500,000 individuals collected as a part of a television documentary titled "Are you autistic?".

Across all five datasets, transgender and gender-diverse adult individuals had a three to six times higher likelihood of being diagnosed as autistic compared with cisgender individuals. Furthermore, transgender and gender-diverse individuals on average scored higher on measures of autistic traits than cisgender individuals, irrespective of an autism diagnosis.

Transgender and gender-diverse individuals were also more likely to be diagnosed with mental health conditions, especially depression, than cisgender individuals.

Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, Director of the Autism Research Centre, said: "Both autistic individuals and transgender and gender-diverse individuals are marginalized and experience multiple vulnerabilities. It is important that we safeguard the rights of these individuals to be themselves, receive the requisite support, and enjoy equality and celebration of their differences, free of societal stigma or discrimination."

Warrier V, Greenberg DM, Weir E, Buckingham C, Smith P, Lai MC, Allison C, Baron-Cohen S. Elevated rates of autism, other neurodevelopmental and psychiatric diagnoses, and autistic traits in transgender and gender-diverse individuals. Nat Commun. 2020;11(1):3959. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-17794-1. PMID: 32770077

This article originally appeared on Univadis, part of the Medscape Professional Network.

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