Assessing suicidal thoughts and behaviors and nonsuicidal self-injury in autistic and non-autistic early adolescents using the Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale.
Jessica M Schwartzman, Rachael A Muscatello, Blythe A Corbett
PMID 37050857WHAT IT FOUND
Autistic early adolescents reported lifetime suicidal thoughts and self-injury more often than their non-autistic peers.
Nearly one in five autistic youth disclosed suicidal thoughts on a self-report questionnaire but not during a clinical interview. Use both methods to screen for suicide risk in this group.
Key findings
01A significantly higher proportion of autistic youth reported lifetime suicidal ideation (23.9%) compared to non-autistic youth (6.9%).
02Nearly one in five autistic youth endorsed recent suicidal ideation on a self-report measure (CDI-2) but did not disclose it to a clinician during the C-SSRS interview.
03Depressive symptoms, rather than autism diagnosis alone, were the only independent predictor of lifetime suicidal ideation in the final statistical model.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The sample did not have equivalent numbers of males and females in the autistic group, which may limit the generalizability of sex-based findings. Data on recent nonsuicidal self-injury were not entered into the database, preventing analysis of recent NSSI. The study was cross-sectional, so it cannot determine causal relationships between variables. The sample was not racially or ethnically diverse, limiting generalizability. The low incidence of suicidal behaviors in this community sample prevented reliability and validity analyses of the C-SSRS for this population. The C-SSRS was administered only once, which may miss fleeting or changing suicidal thoughts.
Declared interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest. The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Mental Health.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that a negative clinical interview means an autistic adolescent has no suicidal thoughts. Nearly 20% of autistic youth in this study reported suicidal ideation on a self-report questionnaire but did not disclose it to the psychiatrist during the interview.