@article{ref1,
title="Behavioral contagion reconsidered: self-harm among adolescent psychiatric inpatients: a five-year study",
journal="Canadian child and adolescent psychiatry review",
year="2003",
author="Cawthorpe, D. and Somers, D. and Wilkes, T. and Phil, M.",
volume="12",
number="4",
pages="103-106",
abstract="OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to examine the occurrence of behavioral contagion among inpatient adolescent psychiatric patients in terms of past self-harm related behaviors. Our goal was to isolate persistent self-harm behavior from self-harm behavior that could be considered truly contagious. METHOD: We employed 5 years retrospective cohort study design in order to compare the occurrence of self-harm as inpatients among those with and without histories of self-harm behavior. RESULTS: Our results indicate that the spontaneous occurrence of self-harm among inpatients without a history of self-harm is very low. While there appears to be a group that exhibits self-harm as inpatients, the tendency in this group is more towards a reduction of the intensity or a cessation of self-harming behavior. CONCLUSIONS: Contagious self-harm does not appear to be a problem among inpatients with long stays on psychiatric treatment units. The overall tendency among inpatient adolescent psychiatric patients, especially those among those with histories of self-harm behavior is away from self-harming behavior.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="1716-9119",
doi="",
url="http://dx.doi.org/"
}