Characteristics of self‐cutters among male inmates: Association with bulimia and dissociation

Abstract

It was examined whether bulimia and dissociation are common in male self-cutters, as has been found in female self-cutters. The subjects were 796 male inmates of a juvenile prison. A self-reporting questionnaire was used to assess self-cutting, histories of psychoactive substance use, problem behaviors, and traumatic life events in the subjects. The Adolescent Dissociative Experience Scale and the Bulimia Investigatory Test of Edinburgh were also used. Subjects were divided into two groups: self-cutting and non-cutting. Questionnaire responses and dissociation and bulimia assessments were compared between the groups. Self-cutters began smoking ( P < 0.001) and drinking ( P < 0.001) earlier, and more frequently used illicit psychoactive drugs ( P < 0.001), experienced childhood physical abuse ( P < 0.001), and reported suicide attempts ( P < 0.001), suicidal ideation ( P < 0.001), and outward violence toward a person ( P < 0.001) or object ( P < 0.001) than noncutters. Self-cutters also scored significantly higher on the bulimia ( P < 0.001) and dissociation tests ( P < 0.001). Logistic regression analysis demonstrated that suicide attempt (odds ratio, 4.311) and suicidal ideation (odds ratio, 2.336) could discriminate between male inmates with and without self-cutting. Male self-cutters showed 'multi-impulsive bulimic' tendencies resembling those of female self-cutters, although to a lesser extent. Clinical features of male as opposed to female selfcutters were influenced by gender differences.

Clinical diagnoses, characteristics of risk behaviour, differences between suicidal and non-suicidal subgroups of Hungarian adolescent outpatients practising self-injury

“…differentiated self-harming adolescents from suicidal peers concluding that SI children exhibited more disruptive behaviour and externalising symptoms and had a history of abuse while their suicidal peers suffered from depression displaying internalising features and had a more serious medical condition. There is evidence indicating increased aggression and behavioural problems among both self-injuring adults and adolescents [3,9,25,[28][29][30], the incidence rate seeming to be depen- Concerning other comorbid disorders, having only three patients with anorexia nervosa in our study sample allows for no satisfying comparison to be made with results of other studies [8,12] which report 50-60% of SI patients having an eating disorder. Drug abuse was also underrepresented in our Hungarian sample (6 cases, 3 having a comorbid alcohol abuse too), as adolescent patients suffering from eating disorders or drug problems are cared for paediatric and addictological centres in Western-Hungary beyond the domain of child psychiatric facilities, which may be the main reason for the low number of patients.…”

Psychometric Properties of the Adolescent Dissociative Experiences Scale (A-DES) in Japanese Adolescents from a Community Sample

“…The A-DES was reported to have good reliability and validity (Armstrong et al, 1997;Smith & Carlson, 1996) and has been used frequently since its initial development to examine a variety of topics related to psychiatric problems in adolescents. For example, relationships between A-DES scores and experiences of past abuse by parents (Brunner, Parzer, Schuld, & Resch, 2000), symptomatology in anorexia nervosa (Farrington et al, 2002), self-mutilation (Matsumoto et al, 2005) et al, 2003), and hallucinatory experiences (Yoshizumi, Murase, Honjo, Kaneko, & Murakami, 2004) have been reported.…”

Deliberate Self-harm and Suicide in Adolescents

“…57 Besides, a major factor often found in many selfcutting youth is severe family dysfunction that induces variable states of depersonalization and an altered state of mind or dissociation. 58,59 Finally, self-cutting may be noted in youth who suffer from sexual or physical abuse, 4 9, 6 0, 6 1 severe family neglect, 6 2 early separation from parents, being homeless, and running from home. 63 Other research notes the importance of parental alienation (with intense parental criticism) in adolescents with non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI such as self-cutting, selfhitting, self-burning).…”