People diagnosed with autism face different challenges every day because of their condition. As if that's not enough, a new study has recently revealed that there is a more serious problem people who suffer from autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have to face; premature death, somewhere between 12 to 30 years old.
The study, which initiated in Karolinska Institute in Sweden, showed that the average age of death for someone with autism spectrum disorder is 54 years old. The researchers used data from 27,122 people diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder between 1987 and 2009 to check how their chances of premature death is affected by how long they lived, the main causes of their deaths, their gender and the type of autism they had.
According to acsh.org, the study found that the number of adults dying without ASD during the 22-year period was less than a percent as compared to almost 3 percent for people with autism spectrum disorder. They also found out that the subjects with ASD died 18 years younger than those who don't suffer from the condition.
People with autism 'die younger' https://t.co/9VLcRYrO4V
— BBC Health News (@bbchealth) March 18, 2016
The researchers were caught off guard to find that instead of people dying as a result of a physical illness; most of the recorded deaths were often due to suicide. "The inequality in outcomes for autistic people shown in this data is shameful," said Jon Spiers, the chief exec of the British autism charity Autistica, speaking with the Washington Post. "We cannot accept a situation where many autistic people will never see their 40th birthday."
The team also found that other leading causes of death involved neurological disorders like epilepsy, a condition that has been associated with autism spectrum disorder. People with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder are more at risk of committing suicide.
Healthcare issues could also be one of the risk factors of suicide for people with autism spectrum disorder. A study by the Academic Autistic Spectrum Partnership in Research and Education (AASPIRE) stated that there are more people with ASD with unmet healthcare needs and not satisfied with their care providers than those people who don't have ASD.
"As a primary care provider, I know that our healthcare system is not always set up to offer high quality care to adults on the autism spectrum," stated Dr. Christina Nicolaidis, the study's principle investigator and AASPIRE co-director. "However, I was saddened to see how large the disparities were. We really need to find better ways to serve them."
The NHS-UK also reported that in 2014, researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis found that people with autism spectrum disorder who drank and smoked were those who are most likely to develop an addiction compared to others. Experts believe that this is caused by the tendency to repeat behavior and patterns from the person suffering from autism spectrum disorder.
"People with autistic traits can be socially withdrawn, so drinking with peers is less likely," says author Duneesha De Alwis, PhD. "But if they do start drinking, even alone, they tend to repeat that behavior, which puts them at increased risk for alcohol dependence." The researchers also said that there are far more that needs to be done to support the physical and mental health of people with ASD.
