Elevated rates of autism, other neurodevelopmental and psychiatric diagnoses, and autistic traits in transgender and gender-diverse individuals

• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-17794-1
• Publication Date: 2020-08-07T10:03:50Z
• Authors: Varun Warrier; David M. Greenberg; Elizabeth Weir; Clara Buckingham; Paula Smith; Meng-Chuan Lai; Carrie Allison; Simon Baron-Cohen
• Keywords: Autistic traits

Abstract It is unclear whether transgender and gender-diverse individuals have elevated rates of autism diagnosis or traits related to compared cisgender in large non-clinic-based cohorts. To investigate this, we use five independently recruited cross-sectional datasets consisting 641,860 who completed information on gender, neurodevelopmental psychiatric diagnoses including autism, measures (self-report autistic traits, empathy, systemizing, sensory sensitivity). Compared individuals, have, average, higher other diagnoses. For both non-autistic score, self-report sensitivity, and, lower empathy. The results may clinical implications for improving access mental health care tailoring adequate support individuals.