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Introduction: Both suicide and self‐harm are disproportionately common in autistic people. Sex differences in risk of self‐harm and suicide are observed in the general population, but findings are mixed for autistic people. Self‐cutting may be a particularly risky self‐harm behaviour for suicide in autistic people. We aimed to explore sex differences and differences in method of self‐harm in the association between self‐harm and suicide in autistic and non‐autistic adolescents and young adults. Methods: We used a total population register of 2.8 million Swedish residents. Participants were followed from age 12 until December 2021 for medical treatment because of self‐harm, and death from suicide. We used Cox proportional hazard regression models to calculate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for risk of death from suicide following self‐harm, and Relative Excessive Risk due to Interaction (RERI) to explore the interaction between self‐harm and autism in females and males. Results: We identified 85,143 autistic individuals (31,288 female; 53,855 male) and 2,628,382 non‐autistic individuals (1,286,481 female; 1,341,901 male) aged 12–37 years. Incidence of suicide following self‐harm was higher in autistic males (incidence per 100,000 risk‐years = 169.0 [95% CI 135.1, 211.3]) than females (125.4 [99.4, 158.3]). The relative risk was higher for autistic females (HR 26.1 [95% CI 20.2, 33.7]) than autistic males (12.5 [9.9, 15.8]). An additive effect of both autism and self‐harm was observed in both females (RERI = 9.8) and males (2.0). Autistic individuals who self‐harmed through cutting were at greatest risk of death from suicide (HR 25.1 [17.9, 35.2]), compared to other methods. Conclusion: Autistic males and females are at increased risk of death from suicide following severe self‐harm, particularly self‐cutting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: More knowledge about risks of clinical outcomes associated with nonsuicidal self‐injury (NSSI) and suicide attempts (SAs) is needed to inform risk assessment and intervention. Methods: Longitudinal cohort study based on 1,855 youths was clinically assessed for NSSI and SA, and followed up (from December, 2011 to December 2013) for the outcomes; diagnosed self‐injury, alcohol/substance use disorder, and psychiatric inpatient care data derived from Swedish registers. Hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of the outcomes were estimated with Cox regressions, and additionally adjusted for the potential effect of sex and the number of clinical assessments. NSSI and SA were treated as time‐varying covariates. Results: Youths with NSSI had elevated risks of all outcomes, compared with youths without NSSI or SA; the HR was 2.3, 95% confidence interval [1.6, 3.4] for self‐injury, 1.4 [0.9, 2.1] for alcohol/substance use disorder, and 1.3 [1.0, 1.7] for psychiatric inpatient care. Youths with SA displayed higher risks for the outcomes than the NSSI group; the HR was 5.5 [2.4, 12.6] for self‐injury, 2.0 [0.9, 4.4] for alcohol/substance use disorder, and 2.6 [1.5, 4.5] for psychiatric inpatient care. Youths with both NSSI and SA showed similar risks as youths with SA; HR 4.1 [2.0, 8.3] for self‐injury, 2.0 [1.1, 4.1] for alcohol/substance use disorder, but a higher risk of psychiatric inpatient care; HR 5.0 [3.1, 7.9]. All results remained virtually unchanged in the adjusted analyses. Conclusions: Youths with NSSI and/or SA had higher risks for subsequent adverse clinical outcomes. These excess risks were more pronounced among youths with SA and youths with both NSSI and SA, and the risk for psychiatric inpatient care was particularly high in youths with both NSSI and SA. Our findings suggest that early interventions for youths with NSSI or SA should not exclusively focus on suicide prevention, but also consider the risk of subsequent alcohol/substance use disorder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To investigate whether patients with clozapine treatment are at an increased risk of a more severe COVID‐19 infection as compared with patients on other antipsychotic drugs. Methods: In this register‐based cohort study, all residents (age 18 or older) in the Stockholm Region with a psychotic disorder diagnosis and antipsychotic treatment were included (N = 8 233) and followed from 1 March 2020 to 14 January 2021. The exposure was defined as clozapine treatment and the outcome measures (indicating a more severe COVID‐19 infection) were: inpatient care, care within intensive care unit or death due to COVID‐19 infection. Differences in outcome rates between exposed (n = 966) and unexposed (other antipsychotics; n = 7 267) were examined using Cox proportional hazards models and expressed as hazard ratios (HR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI). Results: No statistically significant differences in outcome rates were found between the two groups of patients after adjusting for age, sex and residence in retirement homes. The adjusted HR for the exposed compared to the unexposed was 0.96 (95% CI: 0.54, 1.70) for inpatient care; 1.69 (0.48, 5.93) for care in intensive care unit (ICU); and 0.86 (0.26, 2.80) for death. Regarding inpatient care, additional adjusting for country of birth, living in socioeconomically vulnerable areas, number of care visits during the previous year, and comorbid medical illnesses did not alter the results. Conclusions: Our results may add support to the present guidelines, recommending sustained clozapine treatment during the current COVID‐19 pandemic with careful monitoring and readiness to alter drug doses as needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the early 2000s, some children in asylum seeking families in Sweden showed severe reduction in function, including pervasive refusal to eat, drink, walk, talk or care for themselves. In 2014 this was to be named the resignation syndrome (ICD-10 F32.3A). The purpose of our study was to compare education and health-related outcomes over time between those with and without these symptoms, in a group of children from Central Asia who have been asylum seekers and received a residence permit in Sweden. We found that between the years 2005-2012, in the child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) in the Stockholm Region, 103 children showed symptoms of resignation, of whom 43 (43%) showed the most severe symptoms. Children with resignation syndrome assessed and cared for by CAMHS had similar need of outpatient care as other children of the same origin who had been treated by CAMHS for other conditions. They did not have an increased need for inpatient care compared with other children of the same origin, and they passed upper secondary school and past-secondary education to the same extent as other children of the same origin.

Background: Self-harm is common and there is a need for studies that investigate the relevance of this behavior in clinical samples to inform risk assessment and treatment. The objectives in the current studies were to compare clinical and psychosocial correlates and subsequent adverse outcomes in youth who present to child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) with self-harm only (SH), self-harm with suicidality (SH+SU), with those without any indication of SH or SH+SU., Methods: We conducted a case-control study and a longitudinal cohort study using data from a regional clinical care register, and Swedish national registers. The case-control study included all patients (5-17 years) between 2011 and 2015 (N = 25,161). SH and SH+SU cases were compared with controls (patients without SH) regarding a range of correlates. The longitudinal study included former CAMHS patients (N = 6,120) who were followed for a median time of 2.8 years after termination of CAMHS contact regarding outcomes such as clinical care consumption, social welfare recipiency, and crime conviction., Results: In the case-control study, both the SH and SH+SU groups received more clinical care, had lower global functioning, and higher odds of having mental disorders compared to controls. In most comparisons, the SH+SU group had more problems than the SH group. In the longitudinal study, the same pattern emerged for most outcomes; for example, the adjusted hazard ratio for recurrent care due to self-harm was 23.1 (95% confidence interval [CI], 17.0-31.4) in the SH+SU group compared to 3.9 (95% CI, 2.3-6.7) in the SH group., Conclusions: Adolescent patients presenting with self-harm have higher risks for adverse outcomes than patients without self-harm. Suicidality in addition to self-harm is associated with more severe outcomes, importantly recurrent episodes of care for self-harm., (© 2018 The Authors. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.)