Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Experiences Involving Violence or Sexual Abuse in a Clinical Sample of Autistic Adults with Intellectual Disabilities: Prevalence and Clinical Correlates
Kildahl and Helverschou (2023)
Content Warning: sexual abuse
Knowledge concerning trauma in autistic people with co-occurring intellectual disabilities is limited. This research uses a cross-sectional study to explore the prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder, as well as reported experiences of violence and sexual abuse. The study had 88 autistic adults with intellectual disabilities referred for mental health assessment. Only three participants (3.4%) were diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, even if experiences involving violence (34.1%) or sexual abuse (17.0%) were common. Anxiety and affective disorders were common diagnoses among participants with these experiences. These results indicate that potentially traumatic experiences are common for Autistic adults with intellectual disabilities and that post-traumatic stress disorder may be under-recognised. Furthermore, the authors stress the need for screening for PTSD and for appropriate care.
