Changes in Depressive Symptoms Among Adolescents with ASD Completing the PEERS® Social Skills Intervention.

The sample was small: 49 adolescents were included in the sub-study, and depression data were missing for six experimental and four waitlist participants. The study used only self-reported depression, and the authors note concerns about youth with ASD accurately reporting their emotions. Depression was measured immediately after the intervention, so it cannot show whether the changes lasted. There was no usual-care or active comparison group, so PEERS cannot be separated from other possible effects. The waitlist group had no arranged group contact during the wait, so the social contact of group sessions itself may have contributed. The sample was homogeneous in race/ethnicity and family income, so findings may not generalize broadly. The study did not examine other services participants may have been receiving alongside PEERS. Suicidal ideation was an exploratory outcome based on small counts and was not a primary test of the intervention.

No funding source is stated in the supplied text. All listed authors declared no conflict of interest.

Do not conclude that PEERS reduces suicide. The suicidal ideation item was examined only as an exploratory outcome, and the counts were small: 19% (n = 4) in the PEERS group endorsed it at pretest and 0% at posttest, while 18% (n = 3) in the waitlist group endorsed it at pretest and 30% (n = 5) at posttest.