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.

The study used cross-sectional data from a small clinical sample, so it cannot show that violence or sexual abuse caused the behaviours. The sample was highly selected, because all participants were referred for suspected mental health problems and 94.3% had at least one mental health diagnosis. Only 26 of 88 participants were female, so gender differences may not be reliable. The study did not use a PTSD-specific measure, so it is unclear how many participants met PTSD criteria. Trauma experiences relied on clinician report and charts, so events unknown to informants may have been missed. More than 90% of participants had a mental health disorder, so anxiety and depression symptoms may have been common throughout the sample and harder to link to trauma.

Do not conclude that trauma was uncommon because only 3 participants had PTSD diagnoses. The study did not screen for PTSD, and 39 participants had experienced violence or sexual abuse.