Depression and mood disorders among persons with autism spectrum disorders.

Koegel et al. (2014) wrote a narrative review. They pulled together early papers on depression and mood disorders in people with autism.

The goal was to show that these mental-health conditions are common in ASD and to call for better ways to spot and treat them.

The review found that depression in ASD was still “emerging” as a concern. Few studies had tested how to assess or treat it.

In short, the field knew the problem existed but had no agreed-upon tools or steps to follow.

Chien et al. (2021) later gave hard numbers. They used national records and showed that people with ASD develop major depression at much higher rates than the general public. This answers the 2014 call for data.

Green et al. (2020) seemed to paint the opposite picture. Their systematic review found that autistic youth self-reported lower depression and anxiety during the early COVID-19 period. The two papers do not truly clash: L et al. spoke of lifetime risk, while C et al. captured a short-term dip under unusual social conditions.

Ghumman et al. (2026) added clinical detail. In a youth mental-health clinic, more than half of the autistic clients also met criteria for major depression. This extends the 2014 warning into everyday practice: if you see an autistic teen, plan to screen for mood symptoms.

You can’t treat what you don’t measure. Start every intake with a brief mood checklist such as the PHQ-9. If scores are high, bring in a mental-health partner or add mood targets to the behavior plan. Early screens and team care can stop small mood dips from growing into major depression.