Deliberate self-harm in young people: attendance at a paediatric emergency department

Abstract

Objectives: Deliberate self-harm (DSH) is the strongest predictor of suicidal behaviour. This retrospective study reviewed all DSH presentations to our Paediatric Emergency Department between 2002-2006.Method: Using database and medical records we profiled these presentations. Data was coded and statistically analysed.Results: There were 253 DSH attendances. Twenty-four percent were living in care, 15% were under 12 years and 14% presented more than once. Overdoses (61%) were more common than cutting (16%) and 56% had a psychiatric condition.Conclusions: DSH presents an ongoing challenge to child and adolescent mental health services and those working in suicide prevention. Identifying the characteristics of these young people is essential to providing appropriate treatment for this high-risk group.

Practitioner Review: Treatment for suicidal and self‐harming adolescents – advances in suicide prevention care

“…Accumulating data indicate that youths with selfharm histories are at increased risk of suicide deaths and increased risk of death by other unnatural causes, such as overdoses (Hawton et al, 2012;Morgan, Byrne, Boylan, McLearie, & Fitzpatrick, 2009). These results in conjunction with evidence reported in this issue that health risk behaviors such as substance abuse are associated with increased risk of SAs (Barzilay et al, 2019;King, Grupp-Phelan et al, 2019) underscore the importance of clinical evaluation and monitoring of substance use in youths with suicide/self-harm risk.…”