自閉症性別差異

男性比女性更易患有自閉症。但爭議在於，自閉症譜系障礙是真的與性別相關，亦或是因為女性診斷不足。如今，美國每42位男性或189位女性就有一位患得自閉症譜系障礙內疾病 Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD): Data & Statistics

目前有好幾種理論解釋了性別差異的原因，如遺傳保護效應（Genetic Protective Effect）Gockley, J., Willsey, a J., Dong, S., Dougherty, J. D., Constantino, J. N., & Sanders, S. J. (2015). The female protective effect in autism spectrum disorder is not mediated by a single genetic locus. Molecular Autism, 6, 25. http://doi.org/10.1186/s13229-015-0014-3Robinson, E. B., Lichtenstein, P., Anckarsater, H., Happe, F., & Ronald, a. (2013). Examining and interpreting the female protective effect against autistic behavior. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110(13), 5258–5262. http://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1211070110Lai, M.-C., Baron-Cohen, S., & Buxbaum, J. D. (2015). Understanding autism in the light of sex/gender. Molecular Autism, 6, 1–6. http://doi.org/10.1186/s13229-015-0021-4，極端男性腦理論（Extreme Male Brain Theory）Baron-Cohen, S. (2002). The extreme male brain theory of autism. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 6(6), 248–254. http://doi.org/10.1016/S1364-6613(02)01904-6Lai, M.-C., Lombardo, M. V., Pasco, G., Ruigrok, A. N. V, Wheelwright, S. J., Sadek, S. a., … Baron-Cohen, S. (2011). A Behavioral Comparison of Male and Female Adults with High Functioning Autism Spectrum Conditions. PLoS ONE, 6(6), e20835. http://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0020835和性別間的表型差異Lai, M.-C., Lombardo, M. V, Ruigrok, A. N. V, Chakrabarti, B., Wheelwright, S. J., Auyeung, B., … Baron-Cohen, S. (2012). Cognition in males and females with autism: similarities and differences. PLoS ONE, 7(10), e47198. http://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0047198Ludlow, a. K., Roberts, H., & Gutierrez, R. (2015). Social Anxiety and Response to Touch: A Preliminary Exploration of Broader Autism Phenotype in Females. SAGE Open, 5, 2158244015580854–. http://doi.org/10.1177/2158244015580854Torres, E. B., Isenhower, R. W., Yanovich, P., Rehrig, G., Stigler, K., Nurnberger, J., & José, J. V. (2013). Strategies to develop putative biomarkers to characterize the female phenotype with autism spectrum disorders. Journal of Neurophysiology, 110, 1646–62. http://doi.org/10.1152/jn.00059.2013，且這些理論有可能是相互重疊的。一些研究者認為，診斷中性別偏差也有可能導致了女性被漏診為自閉症譜系障礙內疾病。研究者還推測，由於社會中對於不同性別角色有不同期望和社會化，研究報告可能也存在性別偏見。

 參見 
醫學診斷上的性別偏差

 參考文獻 

Category:自閉症
Category:人類性別差異