Self-harm in adolescence and future mental health.

摘要

Results of several school-based community studies have shown that self-harm (intentional self-injury or self-poisoning) is very common in adolescents, being reported by around 10% of 15 and 16 year olds," although with some international variation in prevalence.4 In The Lancet Paul Moran and colleagues5 report a study in which they found that about 8% of adolescents in a sample of nearly 2000 Australian pupils, recruited from schools in the state of Victoria, said they had self-harmed. As in other studies, self-harm was more frequent in girls than boys (risk ratio 1-6, 95% Cl 1-2-2-2), and the most common method was self-cutting, which is by stark contrast with the pattern in samples presenting to hospitals, in which overdoses predominate.6 Factors associated with adolescent self-harm in Moran and colleagues' study were much the same as those found in other community studies13-7 and included anxiety and depression, heavy alcohol use, smoking, and antisocial behaviour.