Sex Differences in Brain Disorders

Accumulating evidence gathered over the past three decades has demonstrated a biological basis for differences between men and women with respect to clinical features and treatment responses to several neuropsychiatric, neurodevelopmental, and neurodegenerative disorders. Dramatic sex differences have also been identified in the brain transcriptomes of individuals with multiple brain disorders, including depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, and autism. The brain transcriptome includes all of the messenger RNA as well as the non-protein-coding RNA molecules expressed in brain tissue and thus represents gene activity. To explore these sex-based transcriptomic differences further, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine's Forum on Neuroscience and Nervous System Disorders hosted a workshop on September 23, 2020, titled Sex Differences in Brain Disorders: Emerging Transcriptomic Evidence and Implications for Therapeutic Development. The workshop brought together a broad spectrum of stakeholders to share cutting-edge emerging evidence, discuss challenges, and identify future opportunities and potential directions. This publication summarizes the presentation and discussion of the workshop.