The Suicidal Ideation Attributes Scale-Modified (SIDAS-M): Development and preliminary validation of a new scale for the measurement of suicidal ideation in autistic adults.
The SIDAS-M is a brief, reliable way to spot suicidal thoughts in verbal autistic adults.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team built a five-minute questionnaire for suicidal thoughts in verbal autistic adults.
They kept the original SIDAS items but swapped confusing language for plain words.
Fifty autistic adults without intellectual disability filled it out twice, two weeks apart.
What they found
Scores stayed stable between the two time points, showing good test-retest reliability.
The scale also lined up with standard depression measures, giving early evidence of validity.
In short, the SIDAS-M flagged suicidal thinking in this group as well as the parent tool does in the general public.
How this fits with other research
Feldman et al. (1999) set the bar for autism screening decades ago, but their review never touched suicide risk. Hedley et al. (2023) now fills that gap by adding a mental-health layer to the assessment toolkit.
MacFarland et al. (2025) did the same dance for ARFID, reshaping an eating scale for autistic adults. Both papers show the field is moving toward autism-tuned versions of common screens rather than one-size-fits-all tools.
Cook (2002) warned we lack good measures for psychiatric conditions in offenders with ID. The SIDAS-M doesn’t solve that exact problem—it excludes people with ID—but it follows the same roadmap: adapt, test, and publish.
Why it matters
You now have a quick, free screen that autistic clients can complete while waiting for session. Adding it to intake gives you a baseline number you can track over time, just like ABC data. If the score jumps, you have an objective flag to start a safety plan or refer out.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Autistic people may be at higher risk of suicidal behavior than people in the general population. Suicidal behavior may include thinking about suicide or attempting to end one's own life by suicide. It is important to identify autistic people who may be thinking about suicide. People who are at risk of suicidal behavior can be identified by asking questions about whether they have been thinking about suicide. A specially designed questionnaire, or screening instrument, can help someone ask the best questions to find out if someone has been thinking about suicide. This information can help to identify supports to be put in place to prevent suicidal behavior, such as a suicide attempt. However, autistic people may interpret questions differently than non-autistic people. It is important to use screening tools that have been designed with, and for autistic people. In this study, we examined the Suicidal Ideation Attributes Scale (SIDAS). The SIDAS is an existing tool that was developed to screen for suicidal thinking in the general population. We modified SIDAS for use with autistic adults. We involved autistic people in the process of modifying SIDAS. We called the modified instrument the SIDAS-M. The results of our study showed SIDAS-M may be useful for screening for suicidal thinking in autistic adults who do not have an intellectual disability.
Autism : the international journal of research and practice, 2023 · doi:10.1177/13623613221131234