A look at “Trauma and Autism: A Scoping Review of the Literature” by Marie-Michèle Dufour, Katia Kutlesa, Jade Éliane Klemme, Charlotte Moore, Philippe Leroux, Justine Larochelle-Guy, Megane Jalbert and Isabelle Préfontaine (2026)
A gentle note: this post discusses trauma in general terms.
Autistic people are more likely to experience bullying, victimisation and other traumatic events, and the effects can be profound. Yet for a long time, trauma in autism was barely studied. This Canadian review set out to map the entire field, and found that research has exploded in recent years.
What it found
The researchers searched four major databases for studies since 2000 and identified 199 relevant studies, most published between 2018 and 2024, with the largest share from the US. Four big themes emerged.
1. The relationship between autism and trauma. Autistic people appear more vulnerable to traumatic experiences, including bullying and victimisation, which can lead to PTSD or complex PTSD. Trauma can also affect school and work functioning and wider wellbeing.
2. How trauma shows up. Trauma may look different in autistic people. Responses can overlap with or be mistaken for autistic traits, for example increased repetitive behaviours, withdrawal or changes in communication. That can make trauma easy to miss.
3. Assessment. Most assessment relies on tools designed for non-autistic people, which may not capture autistic experiences of trauma accurately. Better, autism-informed assessment is needed.
4. Intervention. The most studied therapies were adapted versions of EMDR and trauma-focused CBT. There’s early evidence these can help, especially when adapted (see “Adapting EMDR for Autistic Minds: A Case Study”), but much of the research comes from case studies and small trials.
A grain of glitter ✨
This is a comprehensive and useful map of a rapidly growing field. But as a scoping review, it includes all studies regardless of quality, so it shows what’s been studied, not what’s been proven. It didn’t include grey literature, and broad search terms may have missed some studies, for example on neglect or childhood adversity.
Notably, and honestly, the authors state there was no community involvement in the review. They themselves call for future research to involve autistic people at every stage, and to focus more on autistic women and gender minorities, who are underrepresented despite evidence of elevated risk.
Why this matters
If you’re autistic and have been through difficult experiences, whether bullying, exclusion, abuse or the slow grind of being constantly misunderstood, your pain is real, even if it doesn’t fit a textbook description of trauma. It’s worth seeking a therapist who understands both autism and trauma, and who will adapt their approach to you. For therapists, this review is a reminder to look beneath behaviours that might be dismissed as “just autism”.
Every unicorn deserves to have its scars seen, its story believed, and its healing honoured.