Repeat deliberate self-harm: a link with childhood sexual abuse?

Abstract

SUMMARYThe purpose of this study was to identify whether a past history of childhood sexual abuse is a risk factor for repeated Deliberate Self-Harm (DSH). The study was a 6-month prospective study of 178 patients responsible for 190 consecutive cases of DSH seen during a 3-month censoring period. Patients were identified by review of the in-patient and accident and emergency (A&E) records of all cases of DSH at the A&E department of a major teaching hospital. Patients with a history of childhood sexual abuse showed a marked clustering of four major risk factors for repeat DSH (unemployment, past deliberate self-poisoning, self-injury and psychiatric illness) and were significantly more likely to repeat DSH within the 6-month follow-up period.

A comparison of the backgrounds of first time and repeated overdose patients.

“…As in the previous study by Yeo & Yeo,14 patients who presented with other forms of DSH were excluded. First-timers, patients for whom the current episode was the first overdose, formed the comparison group.…”

Dating Violence Victimization, Dispositional Aggression, and Nonsuicidal Self‐Injury among Psychiatrically Hospitalized Male and Female Adolescents

“…Furthermore, we provide a conservative test of our hypotheses by controlling for a history of childhood abuse. Controlling for abuse history is particularly important as numerous studies have shown that childhood abuse can predispose adolescents to both NSSI (Boudewyn & Liem, ; Herpertz, ; Lehrer, Buka, Gortmaker, & Shrier, ; Romans, Martin, Anderson, Herbison, & Mullen, ; Van der Kolk, Perry, & Herman, ; Winchel & Stanley, ; Yeo & Yeo, ; Zuckerbrot & Jenson, ) and DV victimization (Coffey, Leitenberg, Henning, Bennett, & Jankowski, ; Lehrer et al., ; O'Keefe, ; Wolfe, Scott, Wekerle, & Pittman, ).…”

Factors Associated with Repeat Suicide Attempts among Adolescents

“…Other factors contributing to suicide risk have included a family history of either suicide [7] or psychiatric disorder [9,13,14]; unemployment among older youth [15]; a history of sexual abuse [16,17] and a previous suicide attempt [18,19]. Chronic medical conditions such as type 1 diabetes mellitus [20], asthma [21] and epilepsy [2] have also been implicated.…”