According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, boys are approximately three times Boys are more likely to be autistic than boys. Scientists have sought to answer why this imbalance exists: some have argued that it is related to male and female brain; Others have proposed that genetic differences or some other biological factor may account for this. And there is evidence that some girls and women are misdiagnosed – or ignored altogether.
but a new study Findings involving millions of people in Sweden show that women and men are almost equally likely to be diagnosed with autism by adulthood – suggesting that young girls may be underdiagnosed and potentially missing out on vital care.
Scientists tracked 2.7 million children born in Sweden between 1985 and 2020, about 2.8 percent of whom were diagnosed as autistic by 2022. In childhood, boys were more likely to receive an autism diagnosis. But as the group grew older, researchers identified a “catch-up” effect – by age 20, women were just as likely to receive an autism diagnosis as men. The research was published in bmj.
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The study is “interesting” and “well done,” says David Mandel, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania, who points to the study’s 35-year period and extensive dataset.
Gina Rippon is Emeritus Professor of Cognitive Neuroimaging at Aston University in England and author of the book lost girls of autismAgree. The results are “powerful” and “cool,” says Rippon. “It’s a really rigorous, perhaps classically Scandinavian-type study, where the data is amazing data, collected over time, valid, reliable, et cetera.”
In fact, because the study relied on clinical diagnosis, its findings may actually be a “conservative” estimate of autism rates among women, she adds.
It is not entirely clear what might account for the early diagnosis differences between boys and girls. One possibility is “systemic bias in diagnosis,” wrote patient and patient advocate Anne Carey. Connected bmj editorial. In other words, the way physicians diagnose autism may be lacking in girls. Girls, “out of nature or necessity” may also hide the condition.
And there will be real consequences. Delayed diagnosis may mean autistic people have to work harder to get the right treatment may be misdiagnosed Meanwhile those with conditions like anxiety or ADHD.
Rippon says the new study could be a step toward correcting that legacy. “If this study does nothing more than shed light on what’s going on in the identity of autistic women, that would be great,” she says.
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