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WASHINGTON – People with autism spectrum disorder face a double whammy on suicide risk: They have cognitive, social, and emotional behaviors that increase their vulnerability to suicide, but they also often find it difficult to communicate their depression and suicidality and so may often go unrecognized as suicidal. Or if they are identified, conventional prevention interventions might be less effective.
To try to address this, clinicians are trying to develop a suicide screening questionnaire that is better geared for use on people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), Jacqueline Wynn, PhD said at the annual conference of the American Association of Suicidology.
Many people with ASD “have impaired language capabilities” that make their expressions of depression and suicide ideation more complex, she observed.
“The point is that we need better measures in the ASQ,” said John P. Ackerman, PhD, a clinical psychologist and suicide prevention coordinator at the Center for Suicide Prevention and Research at Nationwide Children’s. “There is a misperception that because people with autism don’t express their emotions and can’t always access the words they don’t have suicide ideation. They do,” he declared in an interview.
People with ASD have high rates of depression and anxiety, decreased inhibitory control and emotional regulation, rigidity or thought, and difficulty asking for help or accepting help. Youth with ASD undergo psychiatric hospitalization more than 10-fold more often than similarly aged youth without a psychiatric diagnosis, Dr. Ackerman noted. In one recent study of 374 adults with Asperger’s syndrome, two-thirds reported having suicidal ideation and one-third self-reported a planned or attempted suicide (Lancet Psychiatry. 2014 Jul;1[2]:142-7).
The risks that people with ASD have for depression and suicide contrasts with the way clinicians currently address this issue. “There are many gaps” in suicide-risk assessment and prevention interventions aimed at people with ASD, he said. For example, a depression symptom checklist that asks whether someone is withdrawn or feeling disconnected focuses on commonplace characteristics among people with ASD.
The recognition that people with ASD need tailored methods for both identifying and intervening with suicidality appears to be part of an emerging appreciation by clinicians who work on suicide prevention of the “need to meet people where they are,” Dr. Ackerman said. Similar approaches might be needed for various ethnic and racial groups, gays, transgender people, those who are hearing impaired, and others who might respond better to novel approaches.
Dr. Wynn and Dr. Ackerman had no disclosures.
WASHINGTON – People with autism spectrum disorder face a double whammy on suicide risk: They have cognitive, social, and emotional behaviors that increase their vulnerability to suicide, but they also often find it difficult to communicate their depression and suicidality and so may often go unrecognized as suicidal. Or if they are identified, conventional prevention interventions might be less effective.
To try to address this, clinicians are trying to develop a suicide screening questionnaire that is better geared for use on people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), Jacqueline Wynn, PhD said at the annual conference of the American Association of Suicidology.
Many people with ASD “have impaired language capabilities” that make their expressions of depression and suicide ideation more complex, she observed.
“The point is that we need better measures in the ASQ,” said John P. Ackerman, PhD, a clinical psychologist and suicide prevention coordinator at the Center for Suicide Prevention and Research at Nationwide Children’s. “There is a misperception that because people with autism don’t express their emotions and can’t always access the words they don’t have suicide ideation. They do,” he declared in an interview.
People with ASD have high rates of depression and anxiety, decreased inhibitory control and emotional regulation, rigidity or thought, and difficulty asking for help or accepting help. Youth with ASD undergo psychiatric hospitalization more than 10-fold more often than similarly aged youth without a psychiatric diagnosis, Dr. Ackerman noted. In one recent study of 374 adults with Asperger’s syndrome, two-thirds reported having suicidal ideation and one-third self-reported a planned or attempted suicide (Lancet Psychiatry. 2014 Jul;1[2]:142-7).
The risks that people with ASD have for depression and suicide contrasts with the way clinicians currently address this issue. “There are many gaps” in suicide-risk assessment and prevention interventions aimed at people with ASD, he said. For example, a depression symptom checklist that asks whether someone is withdrawn or feeling disconnected focuses on commonplace characteristics among people with ASD.
The recognition that people with ASD need tailored methods for both identifying and intervening with suicidality appears to be part of an emerging appreciation by clinicians who work on suicide prevention of the “need to meet people where they are,” Dr. Ackerman said. Similar approaches might be needed for various ethnic and racial groups, gays, transgender people, those who are hearing impaired, and others who might respond better to novel approaches.
Dr. Wynn and Dr. Ackerman had no disclosures.
WASHINGTON – People with autism spectrum disorder face a double whammy on suicide risk: They have cognitive, social, and emotional behaviors that increase their vulnerability to suicide, but they also often find it difficult to communicate their depression and suicidality and so may often go unrecognized as suicidal. Or if they are identified, conventional prevention interventions might be less effective.
To try to address this, clinicians are trying to develop a suicide screening questionnaire that is better geared for use on people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), Jacqueline Wynn, PhD said at the annual conference of the American Association of Suicidology.
Many people with ASD “have impaired language capabilities” that make their expressions of depression and suicide ideation more complex, she observed.
“The point is that we need better measures in the ASQ,” said John P. Ackerman, PhD, a clinical psychologist and suicide prevention coordinator at the Center for Suicide Prevention and Research at Nationwide Children’s. “There is a misperception that because people with autism don’t express their emotions and can’t always access the words they don’t have suicide ideation. They do,” he declared in an interview.
People with ASD have high rates of depression and anxiety, decreased inhibitory control and emotional regulation, rigidity or thought, and difficulty asking for help or accepting help. Youth with ASD undergo psychiatric hospitalization more than 10-fold more often than similarly aged youth without a psychiatric diagnosis, Dr. Ackerman noted. In one recent study of 374 adults with Asperger’s syndrome, two-thirds reported having suicidal ideation and one-third self-reported a planned or attempted suicide (Lancet Psychiatry. 2014 Jul;1[2]:142-7).
The risks that people with ASD have for depression and suicide contrasts with the way clinicians currently address this issue. “There are many gaps” in suicide-risk assessment and prevention interventions aimed at people with ASD, he said. For example, a depression symptom checklist that asks whether someone is withdrawn or feeling disconnected focuses on commonplace characteristics among people with ASD.
The recognition that people with ASD need tailored methods for both identifying and intervening with suicidality appears to be part of an emerging appreciation by clinicians who work on suicide prevention of the “need to meet people where they are,” Dr. Ackerman said. Similar approaches might be needed for various ethnic and racial groups, gays, transgender people, those who are hearing impaired, and others who might respond better to novel approaches.
Dr. Wynn and Dr. Ackerman had no disclosures.
REPORTING FROM THE AAS ANNUAL CONFERENCE