Category: Ataxia
Objective: We aimed to investigate if individuals with spinocerebellar ataxias (SCAs) experience increased suicidal ideation and to identify associated factors.
Background: Suicidality has been extensively studied in various neurodegenerative disorders, including Huntington’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, dystonia, and dementia with Lewy bodies. However, it has not been thoroughly explored in SCAs.
Method: We examined 781 patients with genetically-confirmed SCAs from the Clinical Research Consortium for the Study of Cerebellar Ataxia, the largest SCA cohort in North America. We assessed the percentage of SCA1, 2, 3, 6, and 7 patients who reported suicidal ideation and compared it with the prevalence of suicidal ideation in the general U.S. population, using data from The National Survey on Drug Use and Health survey from 2015 to 2019. The Clopper-Pearson confidence limits for the prevalence of suicidal ideation of SCAs was also calculated to determine its confidence when compared to the general population. Additionally, we analyzed the clinical characteristics that may contribute to suicidal ideation in SCAs, including age, disease duration, sex, ataxia severity, and depression.
Results: Suicidal ideation was present in 11.8% of individuals with SCAs (Clopper-Pearson CI: 9.60-14.15%, p < 0.001), which was significantly higher than the 4.3% prevalence in the U.S. population (odds ratio of 2.97, p < 0.001). Patients with SCAs who reported suicidal ideation had longer disease duration (11.48 ± 6.88 vs. 9.93 ± 8.63 years, p = 0.015), more severe ataxia (scale for the assessment and rating of ataxia: 17.40 ± 8.76 vs. 12.94 ± 7.83, p < 0.001), and more severe depression (10.38 ± 5.72 vs. 4.95 ± 4.80, p < 0.001) compared to those without suicidal ideation.
Conclusion: Suicidal ideation is more prevalent among individuals with SCAs compared to the general population. Our study underscores the importance of screening for suicidal risk in patients with SCAs.
References: N/A
To cite this abstract in AMA style:
C. Lin, L. Peppel, R. Lai, C. Rummey, P. Opal, J. Schmahmann, C. Gomez, H. Paulson, T. Zesiewicz, S. Perlman, G. Wilmot, S. Ying, C. Onyike, K. Bushara, M. Geschwind, K. Figueroa, S. Pulst, S. Subramony, A. Duquette, T. Ashizawa, A. Hamedani, M. Davis, S. Srinivasan, M. Burns, L. Moore, V. Shakkottai, L. Rosenthal, S. Kuo. Increased Risk of Suicidal Ideation in Patients with Spinocerebellar Ataxias [abstract]. Mov Disord. 2024; 39 (suppl 1). https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/increased-risk-of-suicidal-ideation-in-patients-with-spinocerebellar-ataxias/. Accessed July 15, 2025.« Back to 2024 International Congress
MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/increased-risk-of-suicidal-ideation-in-patients-with-spinocerebellar-ataxias/