Self-Harm

by National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health

• ISBN13: 9781908020413
• ISBN10: 1908020415
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-05-31
• Publisher: Royal College of Psychiatrists

Summary

Self-harm is common, especially in young people. It increases the likelihood that the person will eventually die by suicide by between 50- and 100-fold above the rest of the population in a 12-month period. A wide range of psychiatric conditions are associated with self-harm, such as borderline personality disorder, depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and drug and alcohol-use disorders. The focus of this guideline is to improve the longer-term care of people who self-harm after initial treatment of the injury or poisoning (it covers people aged 8 years and older). It reviews the evidence for comprehensive assessment, psychosocial and pharmacological interventions for both the self-harm and for any associated psychiatric conditions, staff training, and consent, capacity and confidentiality issues. It contains all the evidence on which the recommendations were based, including further data on a CD-ROM. The guideline will be useful to healthcare professionals in hospital medical care and mental health services, plus general practitioners - as about half of the people who attend an emergency department after an incident of self-harm will have visited their GP in the previous month.