Teenage girls at greatest risk of self-harm, study reveals

ONE in every 165 adolescent girls was treated in hospital after engaging in deliberate self-harm during the last two years, new figures show.

The incidence of self-harm is highest among teenage girls, according to the study, which also found repeated self-harm, particularly among young men, may be increasing.

The data also confirms for the first time that men now exceed women in terms of the risk of repeated self-harm and the report warns that the development has major implications for assessment and treatment.

Almost half of presentations were by people under 30years of age, with the peak rate for women in the 15 to 19 age group, and for men in the 20 to 24 age group.

The 2007 Annual Report of the National Registry of Deliberate Self-Harm, published today — World Suicide Day — also shows the female rate of deliberate self-harm is one-third higher than the male rate.

In 2006 and 2007, the national male rates of deliberate self-harm were 160 and 162 per 100,000, compared to the female rates at 210 and 215 per 100,000.

As in previous years, the peak rate for women was in the 15 to 19 age group, at approximately 600 per 100,000.

Repetition of self-harm is on the rise, with 17% making at least one repeat presentation in 2007, compared with 6% during 2006.

Almost one-in-four of all deliberate self-harm presentations over the past two years were due to repeat acts, up slightly on the period 2002-2005 when between 19-22% of presentations were due to repeats.

Director of the registry and head of UCC’s Department of Epidemiology, Professor Ivan Perry, said the increase in the rate of repeated self-harm was worrying because of the strong link between repeated of self-harm and suicide.

Director of research at the National Suicide Research Foundation, Dr Ella Arensman, said even if the 2% increase in the rate of self-harm was a blip, the incidence of self-harm was still at a very high level, particularly among young women.

And, she said, given the high rates of deliberate self-harm in adolescents aged 15 to 19 years, it was crucial that the Health Service Executive (HSE) was able to provide specialist mental health services for this age group.

“It will be impossible to deal appropriately with this issue if there are further cutbacks in the HSE and we already know that there are serious gaps in the services,” said Dr Arensman.

The study also found the A&E department was the only treatment setting for more than half of all deliberate self-harm patients.

Pieta House, a charity that has successfully treated over 1,200 suicidal people since 2006, believes more lives could be saved if people knew how to recognise suicidal ideation in friends and family members and encourage them to seek help.

Pieta House chief executive Joan Freeman said a common misconception is that suicidal people are suffering from depression and this was generally not the case.

“The majority of suicides are caused by many complex socio-cultural factors and are more likely to occur in periods of socio-economic, family and individual crisis situations, such as relationship break-ups or the death of a loved one,” she said.

Fine Gael mental health spokesperson and president of the Irish Association of Suicidology, Dan Neville, said the official suicide figure for 2007, at 406 deaths, represented a 12% hike on the previous year’s figure and was evidence of the failure of Government to support suicide prevention.

Samaritans 1850 60 90 90. log onto www.aware.ie; www.mentalhealthireland.ie