Unrelenting Depression and Suicidality in Women with Autistic Traits
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S.I.: SUICIDALITY AND SELF-HARM IN AUTISM
Unrelenting Depression and Suicidality in Women with Autistic Traits M. South1,2 · J. S. Beck1 · R. Lundwall3 · M. Christensen4 · E. A. Cutrer4 · T. P. Gabrielsen4 · J. C. Cox5 · R. A. Lundwall1,2
© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2019
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. Keywords Autism · Autistic traits · Females · Women · Suicidal thoughts and behaviors · Suicide · Depression · Flexibility
Rationale for the Study This study is motivated by three converging factors. First is an alarming recent rise in rates of suicide in many countries, especially among teens and young adults (Jung et al. 2019; Stone et al. 2018; Uchida and Uchida 2017; WHO | Suicide data n.d.). Second is the especially high prevalence of suicide in autistic individuals, documented previously (Cassidy et al. 2018a, b; Hedley and Uljarević 2018; Hirvikoski et al. 2016) and elsewhere in this Special Issue. Third is the consideration of how factors related to women are impacting increasing suicide rates generally and among Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-019-04324-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * M. South [email protected] 1
Department of Psychology, Brigham Young University, 245 TLRB, Provo, UT 84602, USA
2
Neuroscience Center, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT, USA
3
Arizona State University Research Academy, Tempe, AZ, USA
4
Department of Counseling Psychology and Special Education, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT, USA
5
Counseling and Psychological Services, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT, USA
autistic individuals in particular (Curtin et al. 2016; Kirby et al. 2019; Luterman 2019). From within this context, we considered a recent study regarding suicidality risk and autism traits by Richards et al. (2019), using an alternative framework: where Richards et al. documented elevated autistic traits in a sample with previous suicidality, we set out to characterize suicide risk in a sample of women with elevated autistic traits.
Background Suicide is a leading cause of death worldwide (“WHO | Suicide data” n.d.) and in the U.S. (“NIMH » Suicide in America: Frequently
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