Research found that people on the autism spectrum but without intellectual disability were more than 5 times more likely to die by suicide compared to people not on the autism spectrum.

University of Queensland-led research has found people on the autism spectrum are almost 3 times more likely to die by suicide compared to non-autistic people.

Dr Damian Santomauro from UQ’s School of Public Health and the Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research led a team which conducted a systematic review of nearly 1500 international research papers.

“We aimed to quantify the risk, mortality and burden of suicide among people on the autism spectrum,” Dr Santomauro said.

“There were several alarming findings in this study, including the fact people on the autism spectrum but without intellectual disability were more than 5 times more likely to die by suicide compared to people not on the autism spectrum.

“In 2021, the total years of life lost to the increased risk of suicide in the autistic community exceeded those lost to cocaine use, rabies or testicular cancer across the total global population.

“And almost 2 per cent of all suicide deaths globally in 2021 could have been avoided if the risk for death by suicide for autistic people was not elevated.”

[https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165178124004359?via%3Dihub](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165178124004359?via%3Dihub)

There will be significant regional differences. In South Korea, maybe it will be 500 times higher than in NT.