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A worrying new health crisis has been identified… the many lives we now know are being cut short by autism.

As the research director at , a charity which funds research into autism, this poorly understood problem clearly concerns me. As someone with autism, it also affects me directly.

I’ve been fortunate enough to have built a successful academic career around my experience – being autistic hasn’t held me back. But now it’s apparent that, because of my diagnosis, I am more than twice as likely to die early.

The latest evidence for this comes from a large epidemiological study in Sweden published in late 2015 () that found autistic people die 16 years younger than the general population, on average. There is an increased risk of premature death from almost every possible cause.

For those with autism and learning disabilities – the majority of those with autism – average age of death is just 39 – a staggering 30 years lower than the general population.

The leading cause of death is epilepsy, which is harder to identify and treat in people with autism, and it also tends to develop at a later age, unlike most epilepsy.

Meanwhile, autistic adults with intelligence in the normal range are almost 10 times more likely to kill themselves, with women in this group at the highest risk.

Although the scale of this problem is shocking, it is not a complete surprise. I meet far too many parents who have told me about losing sons or daughters and I know far too many autistic people whose mental health issues have stopped them living a normal life, and have led them to want to end it.

To me, this demonstrates the challenges which many autistic adults face daily and our failure as a society to meet their needs.