OBJECTIVES Self-harm is a major health problem in many countries, with potential adverse outcomes including suicide and other causes of premature death. It is important to monitor national trends in this behaviour. We examined trends in non-fatal self-harm and its management in England during the 13-year period, 2000-2012. DESIGN AND SETTING This observational study was undertaken in the thre...

OBJECTIVE To provide guidance for the organisation and delivery of clinical services and the clinical management of patients who deliberately self-harm, based on scientific evidence supplemented by expert clinical consensus and expressed as recommendations. METHOD Articles and information were sourced from search engines including PubMed, EMBASE, MEDLINE and PsycINFO for several systematic re...

BACKGROUND Older adults have elevated suicide rates. Self-harm is the most important risk factor for suicide. There are few population-based studies of self-harm in older adults. AIMS To calculate self-harm rates, risk factors for repetition and rates of suicide following self-harm in adults aged 60 years and over. METHOD We studied a prospective, population-based self-harm cohort presentin...

BACKGROUND Little is currently known about the presence and impact of personality disorder in adolescents who self-harm. AIMS To evaluate personality disorder in repeated self-harm in adolescence and its impact on self-harm psychopathology and adaptation outcomes over 1 year. METHOD A clinical referral sample (n = 366) of adolescents presenting with repeated self-harm aged 12-17 years, as p...

BACKGROUND Repeated self-harm represents the single strongest risk factor for suicide. To date no study with full national coverage has examined the pattern of hospital repeated presentations due to self-harm among young people. METHODS Data on consecutive self-harm presentations were obtained from the National Self-Harm Registry Ireland. Socio-demographic and behavioural characteristics of i...

AIMS Little has been reported on self-harm among the UK Armed Forces, partly due to the difficulties in recording self-harm, within an often-difficult-to-reach population. This study assesses the lifetime prevalence of attempted suicide and self-harm within currently serving and ex-service personnel of the UK Armed Forces. METHODS Telephone interviews were conducted with 821 personnel who had...

Suicide and self-injury are difficult to predict because at-risk individuals are often unable or unwilling to report their intentions. Therefore, tools to reliably assess risk without reliance on self-report are critically needed. Prior research suggests that people who engage in suicidal and nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) often implicitly (i.e., outside conscious control) associate themselves ...

BACKGROUND Self-harm and suicidal behaviour are common reasons for emergency department presentation. Those who present with self-harm have an elevated risk of further suicidal behaviour and death. AIMS To examine whether a postcard intervention reduces self-harm re-presentations in individuals presenting to the emergency department. METHOD Randomised controlled trial conducted in Christchu...

BACKGROUND Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a common psychiatric condition associated with self-harm. Self-harm is poorly understood and there is currently no treatment for acute presentations with self-harm urges. OBJECTIVES By using a new task (Self-relevant Task; SRT), to explore emotions related to one's own person (PERSON task) and body (BODY task), to study the correlations of t...