Autism Behavior Differs Between Boys And Girls, Study

There are a lot of differences between the two genders that are impacted by autism. While boys with autism show more repetitive and restricted behaviour, there are also differences in certain areas of the brains between both.

Kaustubh Supekar, the study lead and a postdoctoral researcher at the Stanford University School of Medicine in California, and his team examined 800 children between 7 to 13 years.

They looked at their social behavior and communication, including repetitive and restricted behaviors and compared the average scores of the boys and girls. They also looked at their brain scans.

They found that boys are three times more likely to display repetitive and restricted behaviors compared to girls. There are also differences in the brain scan analysis.

"Girls and boys with autism differ in their clinical and neurobiological characteristics, and their brains are patterned in ways that contribute differently to behavioral impairments," Vinod Menon, study senior author and a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, said in a press release.

One beneficial result of the study would be clear diagnosis of girls impacted by the disorder. It has been observed that girls are often misdiagnosed, which would result in faulty or delayed treatment.

"The discovery of gender differences in both behavioral and brain measures suggests that clinicians may want to focus diagnosis and treatments for autistic girls differently than boys," Supekar added.

However, not everyone is convinced that it is about time to change how girls are diagnosed and treated. according to hngn.

"The sample size is small -- 25 children in each group -- and the finding is not especially dramatic. It is impossible to know how much these findings might apply to autism spectrum disorders more broadly. And the link between brain findings and behavioral observations may merely reflect correlation, not causation," Dr. Glen Elliott, chief psychiatrist and medical director of Children's Health Council in Palo Alto, Calif. who is not part of the study, told HealthDay News.

The study has been reported in the September 3 issue of the journal Molecular Autism.