Citation

Kaess M. Eur. Child Adolesc. Psychiatry 2019; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Affiliation

Section for Translational Psychobiology in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Center for Psychosocial Medicine, University Hospital Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany. Michael.Kaess@upd.ch.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s00787-019-01412-7

PMID

31571013

Abstract

Self-harm and suicidal behavior range among the most prominent public health concerns in children and adolescents. The term “self-harm” commonly includes both direct and indirect self-damage with and without suicidal intent; whereas, the term “self-injury” refers to direct self-damage only but again regardless of its intent. Self-harm has a mean prevalence of 18% worldwide, and a study investigating the life-time prevalence of self-injury among European adolescents found rates up to 39%. Suicidal ideation and suicide attempts have been reported in about 12% and 4% of adolescents, respectively. The particular importance of adolescent self-harm is underlined by the fact that it is often associated with suicidal ideation and behavior, and that it is one of the strongest risk factors predicting suicidal behavior and death by suicide later in life.

Research trying to better understand the developmental pathways into self-harm and suicidal behavior is highly warranted. One of the risk factors that has often been reported for adolescent self-harm and suicidal behavior is childhood maltreatment. However, the evidence of the overall strong association between childhood adversity and these outcomes is limited by ...

Language: en