Development and validation of the suicidal behaviours questionnaire - autism spectrum conditions in a community sample of autistic, possibly autistic and non-autistic adults.
Sarah A Cassidy, Louise Bradley, Heather Cogger-Ward and 1 others
PMID 34154642WHAT IT FOUND
A new questionnaire, the SBQ-ASC, accurately captures lifetime and past-year suicidal thoughts in autistic adults.
It helps clinicians start safety conversations but must never be used to predict future suicide attempts or to compare risk scores against non-autistic people.
Key findings
01The SBQ-ASC is validated for identifying lifetime and past-year suicidal thoughts in autistic adults, with a cut-off score of 12.5 correctly classifying 88% of those with a history of suicide attempts.
02The tool cannot be used to compare total scores between autistic and non-autistic adults because the underlying structure of the questionnaire differs between these groups.
03Autistic and possibly autistic adults were significantly more likely than non-autistic adults to not disclose suicidality because they were worried about consequences for themselves or unsure how to express their thoughts.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The sample was largely female and diagnosed in adulthood, so results do not generalise to those diagnosed in childhood or with intellectual disability. Autism diagnosis was self-reported, which may introduce bias. The tool measures lifetime and past-year thoughts but does not capture current suicidal ideation. Scores cannot be compared between autistic and non-autistic groups due to structural differences in how the questionnaire functions in these populations.
Declared interests
Funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and Autistica. No other conflicts of interest are reported in the provided text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not use the SBQ-ASC to predict future suicide risk or to compare total scores between autistic and non-autistic patients. The tool is validated for identifying past and present suicidal thoughts in research and clinical conversations, not for risk stratification or cross-diagnostic comparison.