1. Self-harm and Suicidality Experiences of Middle-Age and Older Adults With vs. Without High Autistic Traits
- Author
-
Stewart, Gavin R., Corbett, Anne, Ballard, Clive, Creese, Byron, Aarsland, Dag, Hampshire, Adam, and Charlton, Rebecca A.
- Subjects
Self-destructive behavior -- Causes of -- Diagnosis ,Suicidal behavior -- Causes of -- Diagnosis ,Health - Abstract
Suicide has been identified as a leading cause of premature death in autistic populations. Elevated autistic traits have also been associated with higher rates of self-harm, suicidal ideation, and suicidal self-harm in the general population, but this has yet to be examined in older age. Using baseline cross-sectional data from the PROTECT study, middle-age and older adults with high autistic traits (n = 276) had significantly higher rates of suicidal ideation, deliberate self-harm, and suicidal self-harm than an age/sex-matched comparison group (n = 10,495). These differences represented a 5- to 6-fold increase in likelihood for self-harming and suicidality. These findings, which remained when controlling for depression symptoms, suggest that middle-age and older adults with high autistic traits may be particularly at risk of self-harm and suicidal behaviours., Author(s): Gavin R. Stewart [sup.1] , Anne Corbett [sup.2] , Clive Ballard [sup.2] , Byron Creese [sup.2] , Dag Aarsland [sup.1] , Adam Hampshire [sup.3] , Rebecca A. Charlton [sup.4] [...]
- Published
- 2023
- Full Text
- View/download PDF