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suicide risk and people at the abler end of the autistic spectrum

longman

This might look a bit technical, but it is an important question. How representative is research on autism?

I have come across one or two reports which seem to point to there being a risk of suicide or attempts at suicide particularly amongst adults at the abler end of the autistic spectrum who don't show any other evidence of being at risk.

The problem with these studies is they refer to very few previous reports of this phenomena, and therefore cannot make a strong case. But their inference is that people who are abler are more likely to be working and living in environments where their disability affects them so adversely.

Currently there is a lot of research ongoing into suicide risk amongst adults on the spectrum who suffer significantly from depression. There have been a lot of published papers in the last year.

It might be deduced that the research evidence disproves a risk in abler adults not manifesting depression.

However looking through such research the autistic populations being studied are very specific to one research centre, or one diagnostic service, or one diagnostic method. There doesn't seem to be a lot of research from the broader population of people diagnosed on the autistic spectrum.

I can understand the constraints on research in accessing data nationally, but if some studies are too specific, is there any way of ensuring that there is a proportion of research carried out on more general populations.

The risk otherwise is that overly specific groups of research subjects yield misleading results.

Usually the procedure for research using restricted populations is to set down the limitations of any given study population. This is one way of flagging up the need for other populations to be studied.

It is very important in autism that research looks at a representative enough group of people.

Parents

  • As you know, I am a late identified adult myself.

    In a quest to learn more, I've been doing some considerable family research and it seems my family has a particularly strong line of those affected by AS.

    My brother did commit suicide. And although un-diagnosed, his partner was a GP (Fortunately, very much in the know about Autism) and volunteered; unsolicited, that my brother was likely on the spectrum. My brother also had OCD. (This was many years before my own identification incidently.)

    Given my own diagnosis now, the considerable difficulties also of my younger sibling and my personal observations and experiences with others in the HF area of the spectrum, I feel that suicide potential is definately greater among those with 'high functioning' AS (If I can use the term)

    Of course this hardly represents definative data and Is clearly anecdotal, but does lend itself to some debate I believe.

    In many ways my brother was stereotypyical Aspie. A creature of considerable routine, worked in IT, didn't like change, independant, high functioning and holding down a job he'd been at for nearly 2 decades.

    The problem arose when a 'new boss' singled him out for ridicule. The pressure became too much and after a series of events where the boss turned up outside his house and began to follow him around, my brother became a virtual prisoner in his own home, cracked and took his own life.

    This was clearly a case of bullying, although my brother had difficulty getting others to take him seriously at the time.

    In my own case, suicidal thoughts were strongest prior to my diagnosis and seemed to become a viable option when life became too overwhelming for me. Given my lifes experiences, this has been more frequent than i care to admit and both as a result of serious trauma, but also as a result of everyday difficulties in coping with life.

    It was one of my own severe depressive episodes and contemplation of ending it all, that prompted a referral for diagnosis and although diagnosis has now reduced my tendancys surrounding memory of trauma slightly, my everyday ability to cope with things i've always struggled with, has got worse. This could be due to the series of events close together of course, but I do get the impression that i'm fast reaching my overall capacity to cope, dispite my outward appearance of being able to.

    The influences involving suicide or suicidal thoughts have so many factors to consider and although i agree that groups should be proportionately represented in numbers, how do you factor in age, sex, gender presentation, race and hormones, which may all play a part. With so many factors, how do you come to represent all. I maybe missing the point her, but are numbers the only factor?

    Women for example, by definition are far more likely to mask most of their lives and therefore be undiagnosed or misdiagnosed, but also as a result, are more susceptible to mental health problems. Surely, that will give a bias, based on gender presentation alone?

    Indeed is their any data that displays the ages of those who contemplate suicide? and could a complex chemical imbalace of the brain of those with AS; potentially made worse by age, be an issue?

    Probably, not appllicable, but just thought i'd ask

Reply

  • As you know, I am a late identified adult myself.

    In a quest to learn more, I've been doing some considerable family research and it seems my family has a particularly strong line of those affected by AS.

    My brother did commit suicide. And although un-diagnosed, his partner was a GP (Fortunately, very much in the know about Autism) and volunteered; unsolicited, that my brother was likely on the spectrum. My brother also had OCD. (This was many years before my own identification incidently.)

    Given my own diagnosis now, the considerable difficulties also of my younger sibling and my personal observations and experiences with others in the HF area of the spectrum, I feel that suicide potential is definately greater among those with 'high functioning' AS (If I can use the term)

    Of course this hardly represents definative data and Is clearly anecdotal, but does lend itself to some debate I believe.

    In many ways my brother was stereotypyical Aspie. A creature of considerable routine, worked in IT, didn't like change, independant, high functioning and holding down a job he'd been at for nearly 2 decades.

    The problem arose when a 'new boss' singled him out for ridicule. The pressure became too much and after a series of events where the boss turned up outside his house and began to follow him around, my brother became a virtual prisoner in his own home, cracked and took his own life.

    This was clearly a case of bullying, although my brother had difficulty getting others to take him seriously at the time.

    In my own case, suicidal thoughts were strongest prior to my diagnosis and seemed to become a viable option when life became too overwhelming for me. Given my lifes experiences, this has been more frequent than i care to admit and both as a result of serious trauma, but also as a result of everyday difficulties in coping with life.

    It was one of my own severe depressive episodes and contemplation of ending it all, that prompted a referral for diagnosis and although diagnosis has now reduced my tendancys surrounding memory of trauma slightly, my everyday ability to cope with things i've always struggled with, has got worse. This could be due to the series of events close together of course, but I do get the impression that i'm fast reaching my overall capacity to cope, dispite my outward appearance of being able to.

    The influences involving suicide or suicidal thoughts have so many factors to consider and although i agree that groups should be proportionately represented in numbers, how do you factor in age, sex, gender presentation, race and hormones, which may all play a part. With so many factors, how do you come to represent all. I maybe missing the point her, but are numbers the only factor?

    Women for example, by definition are far more likely to mask most of their lives and therefore be undiagnosed or misdiagnosed, but also as a result, are more susceptible to mental health problems. Surely, that will give a bias, based on gender presentation alone?

    Indeed is their any data that displays the ages of those who contemplate suicide? and could a complex chemical imbalace of the brain of those with AS; potentially made worse by age, be an issue?

    Probably, not appllicable, but just thought i'd ask

Children
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