Background: Adults with intellectual disability (ID) are at high risk of exhibiting challenging behaviors, especially those with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). There are clinical and transdiagnostic variables that are largely related to the existence of these behaviors, and it is necessary to know the particularities of their role in people with…

Suicide has been identified as a leading cause of premature death in autistic populations. Elevated autistic traits have also been associated with higher rates of self-harm, suicidal ideation, and suicidal self-harm in the general population, but this has yet to be examined in older age. Using baseline cross-sectional data from the PROTECT study,…

Autistic people experience a higher prevalence of self-harming behaviours than do the general population. Self-harm remains a stigmatised topic, and until recently, self-harming behaviours in autism were considered to be limited to self-injurious behaviours experienced by intellectually impaired autistic children and not to be experienced by…

Angelman Syndrome (AS) is a rare genetic disorder that impacts 1:20,000 people. Challenging behaviour, such as severe injurious behaviour, aggression and frequent unprovoked episodes of laughter are a significant problem among adults with AS that adversely impacts an individual's quality of life. This study, for the first time, aims understand the…

Autistic people are at greater risk of self-harm than non-autistic people, yet no tools exist specifically for assessing self-harm in this population. We therefore conducted two focus groups with autistic adults (n = 5) and professionals (n = 4) to examine their perspectives on three existing self-harm assessment tools (Non-Suicidal Self-Injury --…

Background: Aggressive behaviour (AB) and non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) are common in people with mild intellectual disability or borderline intellectual functioning, leading to adverse consequences for themselves and those around them. Method: We investigated the relationship between AB (both total and physical in particular) and NSSI and risk…

Background: Understanding the operant function of self-injurious behavior in autistic individuals is imperative to understanding its etiology and designing effective prevention strategies. Methods: We conducted a postal survey of residential care facilities including two functional assessment tools: QABF and IfES. Questionnaires for N = 178…

Despite increasing attention on suicidality in autistic people, we know little about suicidal presentations when autistic individuals present to hospital emergency departments (ED). We conducted an exploratory retrospective chart review of suicidal thoughts and behaviours (STB) of autistic adults who presented to a psychiatric ED. The analysis…

We analyzed the Healthcare Cost and Utilization State Emergency Department (ED) Databases and State Inpatient Databases for all individuals who were 2 years of age or older with at least one ED visit from 2011 to 2016 in New York to estimate the association between suicide and non-fatal injury-related ED visits and autism spectrum disorder (ASD).…

Self-harm and suicidal behaviors are prevalent among autistic adults without intellectual disability (ID). Emotion dysregulation (ED), the difficulty in modulating emotions, has been identified as an important risk factor. Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) has been proved effective to treat ED in disorders other than autism spectrum disorder. Our…

The present study aims to examine the effects of the MindfulTEA program, an Mindfulness-based Interventions (MBIs) specifically designed for adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Intellectual Disability, to reduce behavioural problems. MBIs are effective in improving well-being in people with high-functioning ASD, but little is known…

Background: Callous-unemotional traits (CUT) are an antisocial personality trait, which can be present in people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), especially in relation to difficulties in empathy. These traits are related to challenging behaviors, such as aggressive behavior, which may occur in people with ASD. Method: This study aimed to…

Challenging behaviors are prevalent among adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). In this review, we used the What Works Clearinghouse Standards (WWC) to evaluate the quality of 84 studies that aimed to treat the challenging behaviors of adults with IDD, ages 22 years and older, using a function-based intervention. Then, we…

Many Autistic adults without intellectual disability experience emotion dysregulation, which is associated with non-suicidal self-injury and suicidal behaviour. Dialectical behaviour therapy has been shown to be feasible, acceptable and potentially effective is supporting Autistic adults without intellectual disability with improved emotion…

Restrictive and Repetitive Behaviors and Interests represent a core feature of autism since the earliest conceptualization of the condition. Related behaviors, such as hoarding and self-injurious behaviors, are under-researched in adulthood, resulting in limited knowledge about their various manifestation through the life span. This study expands…