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Abstract
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RE: Ayodeji et al (2015) The influence of personality disorder on outcome in adolescent self-harm.
I extremely enjoyed reading this large sample randomised control trial, which focused on such a significantly important area of research.
Despite the high quality of this research I have are few critiques and points which I believe are worth considering. The sample consisted of individuals between 12 and 17 years of age, which enables the authors to capture participants across the adolescent age group. However developmentally, adolescents who are 12 differ greatly from 17 year olds, both in terms of personality development and self-harming behaviours.
Secondly, the authors only included participants who had self-harmed twice or more. Although I commend the authors for their inclusion criteria, I also believe it would have been interesting to compare outcomes between groups of participants depending on frequency (e.g. <10 compared to >10) and severity of self-harm. Additionally, I would be interested to have known whether the sample included participants who had ever had a Tier 4 inpatient admission, as I believe this would have affected the diversity of the sample in terms of self harming severity and personality disorder characteristics.
I would like to commend Ayodeji et al. for this high quality study, in particular for using validated questionnaires and for expanding the literature in this area. Self-harm in adolescents is an important areas of research in mental health. This study provides novel insight into the relationship between personality disorder and self-harm.
Copyright © 2017 The Royal College of Psychiatrists
Language: en |