People With Autism 'Die Younger', Warns Charity

Autism People Die Younger

A charity has informed that people suffering from autism seem to be dying earlier than the general population frequently through epilepsy or suicide. Quoting recent research that had been carried out in Sweden, the charity Autistica defined the issue as an `enormous hidden crisis’. In the British Journal of Psychiatry, the study showed that autistic people tend to die on average 16 years early.Now charity wants to raise £10m for the purpose of more research in the condition.

It has been estimated that in UK 1% of the population have autism causing difficulties in how they tend to communicate and relate to others. Looking at the health records of 27,000 autistic adults, the Swedish study used 2.7 million people as control sample for the general population.

 The research that was carried out by the Karolinska Institute observed that those with autism together with associated learning disability seemed to die, 30 or more years early with the average age of death being 39. The leading cause of death in this group of people was epilepsy. Scientists have yet not explained the link between autism and epilepsy that is partially why charity intends to raise the money for the next five years to enable more research.

Research Described as `Shocking & Disheartening’

The study also recommended that some people with autism who did not face any intellectual disability, died on an average 12 years younger, at 58 years old instead of 70. Suicide seemed to be the most common result of death for this group of people besides heart disease.

Earlier research has shown that autistic women have been more at risk of suicide than men and just half of autistic individual who have contemplated suicide had been categorised as depressed though the later point could be down to issues related to communication in diagnosis. The research carried out by Dr Tatja Hirvikoski had been published online in November 2015 describing the findings as `shocking and disheartening. Dr Hirvikoski had stated that there was an urgent need for increased knowledge.

Jon Spiers, chief executive of Austistica had informed BBC that the number of deaths in autistic adults seemed to be an `enormous hidden crisis. The inequality in outcomes for autistic people shown in the data seems to be shameful.

Government to Carry out National Autism Mortality Review

According to charity, a quarter of the people suffering from autism tend to speak very few or no words, though statistically around 15% seem to find full time employment and almost three quarters of the people have at least an associated mental health condition while 40% tend to have two.

 Autistica desires that the government carries out a national autism mortality review as well as a petition demanding this action will be delivered to Downing Street later this year. Chief executive, of the National Autistic Society, Mark Lever had stated that the situation could be much worse in the UK. He added that they have no reason to believe that the situation would be different there.

A spokesperson from Department of Health had mentioned that they had made immense developments in the way they tend to treat conditions like autism though they need to speed up progress beyond that. That is the reason why they are working along with people with autism and their carers ensuring that they have access to healthcare with modification made for their conditions.