Mapping Clinical Diagnoses Associated With Neurodiversity and Neurodivergence in Mental Health Research: A Scoping Review.

Authors

Alessio Bellato, Martine R P Long, Morena Barilà, Giorgia Frigeri, Luigi Rizzo, Sabrina Serafino, Andrea Bilbow, Nina Hovén, Aurelie Baranger, Pietro Cirrincione, Yiling Ke, Conni Langdown, Jing Li, Sophia Lipscombe, Julia Ribeiro, Emma Sgariboldi, Sarah L Chellappa, Giorgia Michelini, Lucia Margari, Emilia Matera, Maria Giuseppina Petruzzelli, Samuele Cortese

Published in

JAMA psychiatry. Sep 16, 2026. Epub Sep 16, 2026.

Abstract

The terms neurodivergence and neurodiversity are increasingly used across mental health and broader clinical literature, as well as in clinical practice, clinical service commissioning, and policy contexts, despite their lack of clinical and diagnostic specificity.
To quantitively map clinical diagnoses associated with the terms neurodivergence and neurodiversity in the empirical mental health literature through a scoping review conducted with experts with lived experience .
Following JBI methods and the PRISMA extension for scoping reviews, PubMed/Medline, Web of Science, Embase, and PsycINFO were searched up to August 1, 2025, and identified 134 studies including 151 134 participants that recruited participants defined as neurodivergent or neurodiverse.
Participants were primarily identified through self-reported diagnoses (n = 56 [41.8%]) or self-identification (n = 50 [37.3%]). A heterogeneous range of diagnoses was associated with neurodivergence and neurodiversity, most commonly autism (n = 92 [68.7%]), followed by ADHD (n = 86 [64.2%]), dyslexia (n = 44 [32.8%]), dyspraxia (n = 21 [15.7%]), anxiety disorder (n = 20 [14.9%]), and dyscalculia (n = 17 [12.7%]). Notably, 29 studies (21.6%) did not specify any clinical diagnoses.
While neurodivergence and neurodiversity are valuable for capturing lived experience, their lack of specificity may introduce substantial heterogeneity in research focused on clinical categories. These findings suggest prioritizing precise diagnostic descriptors in clinical practice and research involving clinically defined conditions, while reserving neurodivergent for studies and contexts focused on self-identification and identity.

PMID:
42747846
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 17 Sep 2026.

Read full publication at:
Please sign in to see all details.

Stats

1-terrible, 9-excellent. How would you rate this publication? Sign in in to submit your rating.

Post a comment

You need to be signed in to post comments. You can sign in here.

Comments

There are no comments yet.