June 1 (UPI) -- Researchers at the University of Bristol in England have found that a diagnosis of autism by itself does not increase the risk of violent offending.
The study at the University of Bristol, in collaboration with the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, found people diagnosed with autism may initially appear to have a higher risk of violent offending but that this association is significantly reduced once the presence of additional attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, or conduct disorder was also accounted for.
ADHD along with other psychiatric disorders and alcohol and drug misuse were important predictors of violent criminality in autism, not just the autism itself.
"Interestingly, the additional presence of an autism diagnosis was actually associated with a relatively lower risk of convictions, compared to having these conditions without autism," said Dr. Dheeraj Rai, consultant senior lecturer in psychiatry at Bristol's School of Social and Community Medicine, said in a press release. "We think that these findings could be important for autism services, which often focus on providing a diagnosis of autism, rather than on the identification of, and support for, the conditions that commonly occur alongside it."
Researchers found that individuals with ADHD or conduct disorder had an additional diagnosis of autism, the autism diagnosis actually reduced the risk of violent criminality compared to those with ADHD alone.
"We know that some people with an autism diagnosis have challenging behavior and may come into contact with the criminal justice system; however, whether having autism increases the risk of violence or not has not been clear," said Dr. Ragini Heeramun, a consultant forensic psychiatrist at the Avon and Wiltshire Partnership National Health Service Mental Health Trust in Bristol. "Our findings, from the largest study to date, show that at the population level, autism in itself doesn't seem to be associated with convictions for violent crimes. However, other conditions, such as ADHD, which can co-occur with autism, may increase such risks."
The study was published in the Journal of American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
