Citation

Stocks R, Scott AI. Br. J. Psychiatry 1991; 158: 375-378.

Affiliation

University Department of Psychiatry; Royal Edinburgh Hospital, Morningside Park.

Comment In:

Br J Psychiatry 1991;159:440

Copyright

(Copyright © 1991, Royal College of Psychiatry)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

2036537

Abstract

Between 1982 and 1987, 42 patients were selected who had been admitted three times in one week to the Regional Poisoning Treatment Centre in Edinburgh for the treatment of deliberate self-harm. Most (87%) of these admissions related to drug overdose. Most of the patients were young, unemployed, lacking a partner and from the low social classes. Three-quarters of the sample had at least one known conviction and more than a third were known to have served a prison sentence. There was only one patient in whom mental illness was thought to be relevant to the episode of self-harm, although five patients were mildly mentally handicapped. Case notes were reviewed to assess the outcome one year after the index admission. None of the patients had committed suicide, although 36 repeated self-harm during the follow-up year.

Language: en