Mortality and causes of death in autism spectrum disorders: an update.

Mouridsen et al. (2008) tracked deaths among Danish adults with autism. They used the national psychiatric register to find every adult who carried an ASD diagnosis.

The team then linked those records to the death register. This let them count how many died and list each cause of death.

Adults with autism died at almost twice the rate of other Danish adults. Epilepsy showed up in one out of every three death certificates.

The study paints a clear picture: living with ASD in Denmark carries a large early-death risk, and seizures play a big part.

Hwang et al. (2019) asked the same question in Australia. They saw the same two-fold jump in deaths, stretching from age 5 to 64. This match is a clean conceptual replication: two countries, same grim ratio.

Bailey et al. (2010) gave the Danish register a check-up. They found records tagged "childhood autism" were correct 94% of the time. That score boosts trust in the cases Erik et al. counted.

Amaral et al. (2017) looked at English adults with intellectual disability. Death rates tripled and life expectancy dropped 20 years. The English data widen the lens: the mortality gap is not unique to autism; it spans developmental disabilities.

If you serve adults with ASD, plan for medical red flags. Ask about seizure history at every intake. Push for neurology follow-up when reports mention staring spells or night-time convulsions. Pair your behavior plans with prompts for annual physicals, cardiac checks, and medication reviews. Treat epilepsy monitoring as part of the behavior-analytic scope, not an outside extra.