Autism spectrum disorders as a risk factor for adolescent self-harm: a retrospective cohort study of 113,286 young people in the UK.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are at particularly high risk of suicide and suicide attempts. Presentation to a hospital with self-harm is one of the strongest risk factors for later suicide. We describe the use of a novel data linkage between routinely collected education data and child and adolescent mental health data to examine whether adolescents with ASD are at higher risk than the general population of presenting to emergency care with self-harm.

Methods

A retrospective cohort study was conducted on the population aged 11-17 resident in four South London boroughs between January 2009 and March 2013, attending state secondary schools, identified in the National Pupil Database (NPD). Exposure data on ASD status were derived from the NPD. We u

SUBMITTER: Widnall E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9052640 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature