Autism and psychosis: Clinical implications for depression and suicide
Open accessAbstract
There is increasing recognition of the co-occurrence of autism and schizophrenia spectrum disorders. However, the clinical significance of this on outcomes such as depression and suicidal thinking has not been explored. This study examines the association of autism spectrum traits, depressive symptoms and suicidal behaviour in individuals with psychotic experiences. In two cross sectional studies, individuals from a non-help seeking university student sample and patients with first episode psychosis (FEP) service completed standardized measures of autism spectrum traits, psychotic experiences, depressive symptoms and suicidal thinking. In healthy non-help seeking students, increased autism traits and increased subclinical psychotic experiences were significantly associated with depressive symptoms; a significant interaction effect suggests their combined presence has a greater impact on depression. In FEP, high autism traits and positive symptoms were associated with increased depression, hopelessness and suicidality, however there was no significant interaction effect. In FEP a multiple mediation model revealed that the relationship between autism traits and risk for suicidality was mediated through hopelessness. Young people with subclinical psychotic experiences and all patients with FEP should be screened for autism spectrum traits, which may have significant impact on clinical outcomes. Tailored interventions for patients with high levels of autistic spectrum co-morbidities in FEP should be a priority for future research.
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Traits characteristic of autism are significantly associated with suicidality in those with and without ASC diagnosis.
“Traits characteristic of autism are also significantly associated with suicidality in those with [2], and without ASC diagnosis [16–18].”
From Risk markers for suicidality in autistic adults (2018) · cites this paper as [16]
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- Authors
- Upthegrove, R., Abu-Akel, A., Chisholm, K., Lin, A., Zahid, S., Pelton, M., Apperly, I., Hansen, P. C., & Wood, S. J.
- Affiliations
- Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust (GB)
- University of Lausanne (CH)
- University of Birmingham (GB)
- The Kids Research Institute Australia (AU)
- The University of Melbourne (AU)
- Corresponding author
- Upthegrove, Rachel
- ORCID
- Venue
- Schizophrenia Research
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2018-05
- Volume
- 195
- Pages
- 80-85
- ISSN
- 0920-9964 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2745612744
- Cited by
- 60
- References
- 50
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 3
- FWCI
- 3.84
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- Licence
- cc-by-nc-nd
- www.elsevier.com/tdm/userlicense/1.0/ (tdm)
- Locations
- Schizophrenia Research (publishedVersion)
- UWA Profiles and Research Repository (UWA) (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Aston Publications Explorer (Aston University) (submittedVersion)
- University of Birmingham Research Portal (University of Birmingham) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- IRIS (submittedVersion)
- SERVAL (Université de Lausanne) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Schizophrenia research and treatment
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Suicide and Self-Harm Studies
- Keywords
- autistic traits, first-episode psychosis
- MeSH terms
- Help-Seeking Behavior, Adolescent, Adult, Autistic Disorder, Depression, Female, Humans, Male, Psychotic Disorders, Suicide, Young Adult
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