Authors
Emma Ashworth, Pooja Saini, Claire Hanlon, Anna Hunt, Molly McCarthy, Sio Wynne, Vivienne Crosbie, Lucy Bray, David Moore, Abigail Knight, Georgia Pavlopoulou
Published in
Journal of autism and developmental disorders. Jul 29, 2026. Epub Jul 29, 2026.
Abstract
Hospital Emergency Departments are increasingly playing a role in the care of young people experiencing suicidal crisis. Autistic young people, who already experience elevated rates of suicidal thoughts and death by suicide, may face particular difficulties in such environments.
This retrospective medical records review explored patterns of Emergency Department attendance for suicidal crisis among young people (aged 8-16 years) attending a UK paediatric hospital between 2019 and 2021. Anonymised clinical records from 338 young people were analysed using descriptive and exploratory statistics.
35.8% of attendees were autistic and 62.0% of those were female. Autistic young people were attending at significantly younger ages than non-autistic young people, and were significantly more likely to be known to mental health services and to have attended the Emergency Department previously for suicide ideation.
Findings indicate that autistic young people, and in particular autistic females, were over-represented in crisis presentations, despite previous attempts to seek help. Further research is needed to understand what could help prevent autistic young people from reaching crisis, and what support may be beneficial in the Emergency Department to de-escalate crises, improve wellbeing, and prevent re-attendance.
PMID:
42525205
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 29 Jul 2026.
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