Miscounted and Misunderstood: The Intersection of Autism, Women, and Suicide

Oregon Convention Center 

Recently, research studies have focused on quantifying suicidality in the autistic population. A crucial finding of this research is that autistics are four to eight times more likely to die by suicide, yet the risk is often missed by common diagnostic approaches. While this is important, studies overlook a demographic group with the highest suicidality rate: autistic women. Not only have studies shown autistic women are more likely to die, roughly 40% are misdiagnosed or get no diagnosis. This adds an additional layer of methodological challenges in aforementioned studies into suicidality and autism as study populations include only diagnosed autistics. This implies that future studies should aim to recruit participants not according to the demographics of the diagnosed autistic population but by the demographics of diagnosed and undiagnosed autistic population. Without this updated approach, the likelihood of undiagnosed suicidality in the highest risk category, autistic females, continues to exist and this can cause treatment delay in individuals with a high clinical need. This talk discusses the critical need for correct populations and targeted understanding of key subgroups.