Abstract
Understanding the cognitive and emotional mechanisms that link autistic traits and risk for suicide is a vital next step for research and clinical practice. This study included a broad sample of adult women (n = 74) who report finding social situations confusing and/or exhausting, and who score high on measures of autistic traits. Regardless of autism diagnostic status, these women reported high rates of suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Depression symptoms were more associated with suicidality than were autistic trait measures of social communication. Measures of neurotypical “imagination” and of repetitive behavior likewise were associated with suicidality risk. Simultaneously feeling sad and feeling stuck or unable to imagine alternate strategies, may uniquely increase suicide risk in autism.
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Acknowledgments
We give our deepest thanks to the women who participated in this project for their honest, impassioned contributions. This work was funded by a Mentored Research Environment Grant from Brigham Young University to Drs. Rebecca Lundwall and Jon Cox, and by an Organization for Autism Research Student Research Grant to Mr. Beck. We thank Scenic View Academy (Utah, USA) and the BYU CAPS center for their assistance with recruiting and support. We finally thank our dedicated research assistant team for valuable contributions over a long project, including Rachel Nuttall, Brinnley Lemmon, and Morgan McBride.
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Study conception and design were performed by MS, TPG, RL, JCC, and JSB. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by JSB, MC, EAC, RL, RAL, and MS. The first draft of the manuscript was written by MS and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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South, M., Beck, J.S., Lundwall, R. et al. Unrelenting Depression and Suicidality in Women with Autistic Traits. J Autism Dev Disord 50, 3606–3619 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-019-04324-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-019-04324-2