Sex differences in psychiatric diagnoses preceding autism diagnosis and their stability post autism diagnosis.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Autistic individuals often receive psychiatric diagnoses prior to their autism diagnosis. It remains unclear to what extent autistic females and males differ in their likelihood of receiving psychiatric diagnoses prior to their autism diagnosis and continue seeking care for them after an autism diagnosis.

Methods

In a nationwide cohort of all individuals born in Sweden 1990-2015 with a clinical autism diagnosis (N = 72,331, n_females = 24,110), we used linear and logistic regression to estimate the association between sex and (a) psychiatric diagnoses before autism diagnosis, including time trends by autism diagnosis year (2010-2020), (b) autism diagnosis age in those with preceding diagnoses, (c) stability of preceding diagnoses (defined as continued ca

SUBMITTER: Martini MI 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12267683 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature