Self-harm common in teenagers

Research partly conducted by Australian experts found poisoning was the second most common method of self-harm, followed by self-battery such as deliberate knocking heads or limbs against walls or other objects. The problem was more common among girls than boys, with 10 per cent of the female subjects among the 1802 included in the study admitting to self-harm, compared to 6 per cent of boys.


The bright note of the research was that the practice largely disappeared by the time the teenagers reached young adulthood, when only 10 per cent of the participants said they had continued to hurt themselves. The work, jointly conducted by experts from Melbourne's Murdoch Childrens Research Institute and from King's College, London University, and published yesterday in The Lancet, is the first population-based study to follow a group of self-harming adolescents over time, charting the course of their self-harm habit into adulthood.


The Lancet study findings have important implications for the treatment of mental health issues and prevention of suicide in young adults.


The study looked at almost 2,000 adolescents in Australia, repeatedly surveying them over a period of 15 years.


Researchers found that anxiety, depression, heavy alcohol use, cigarette smoking and cannabis use were all associated with self-harm.


The study suggests that self-cutting and burning were the commonest forms of self-harm during adolescence.


As 90% of teenagers who self-harmed stopped before they reached adulthood, the research should offer some reassurance to families, schools and clinicians, the authors of the study say.


But, Marjorie Wallace, chief executive of the mental health charity SANE, said:


"The figures showing that 90% have stopped by the time they reach their twenties should not seduce us into thinking that self harm is just a phase that young people will grow out of".


Suicide risk?
"Our research shows that counter to common perception, people self-harm and continue to self-harm at times throughout their lives to protect themselves from attempting suicide and their families and friends from experiencing their mental pain."


Because of the association between self-harm and suicide, the researchers suggest treating common teenage mental health problems could be part of an "important and hitherto unrecognised component" of preventing suicide in adults.




"Self-harm is one of the most significant predictors of completed suicide, " a lead author, Dr Paul Moran, of King's College London, said.


Of the people who have died by suicide, around 50-60% have a known history of self-harm, according to Professor Keith Hawton, Director of the Centre for Suicide Research, University of Oxford.


How many people who have self-harmed die due to suicide, is less clear.