Does Camouflaging Cause Reduced Quality of Life? A Co-Twin Control Study.
Karl Lundin Remnélius, Janina Neufeld, Johan Isaksson and 1 others
PMID 39395128WHAT IT FOUND
In twin pairs, the sibling who reported more camouflaging had lower quality of life than their co-twin.
This held even in identical twins, suggesting the link isn't just due to shared genetics or environment.
Key findings
01Autism diagnosis and ADHD were both associated with increased camouflaging.
02The negative association between camouflaging and quality of life persisted within monozygotic (identical) twin pairs.
03Autistic females reported higher levels of camouflaging than autistic males and non-autistic participants.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study is cross-sectional, so it cannot prove that camouflaging causes lower quality of life. It could be that people with lower quality of life use more camouflaging, or that both are driven by unmeasured factors. The sample excluded individuals with intellectual disability, so results do not apply to that population. The number of autistic participants was small (22 total), particularly among females (8), which limits the certainty of the sex-by-autism interaction findings. Camouflaging and quality of life were both measured by self-report, which can introduce bias. The study design assumes that findings in twins generalize to non-twin populations.
Declared interests
The study was funded by the Karolinska Institute. No other conflicts of interest were declared.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret this as proof that camouflaging causes low quality of life. The study shows a strong association that survives genetic controls, but it cannot rule out reverse causation (low quality of life leading to more camouflaging) or other unmeasured environmental differences between twins.
Summarised by AI from the full paper, without a clinician reviewing it. Check it against the source before it changes what you do. Read it on PubMed →