Self-inflicted injuries in adolescents and young adults: A longitudinal approach

Suicide has become a major global public health problem in some clinical subpopulations. Adolescents and young adults with self-inflicted injuries or non-suicidal self-harm appear to have been understudied. The aim of this study is to assess which socio-demographic and prior co-morbid psychopathology condition variables in adolescents and young adults with self-inflicted lesions are likely to be more predictive of future self-injury after 12 months.

The eligible participants were 176 people (99 women and 77 men) aged 15-25 (mean = 20.3; SD = 4.56) who were subsequently divided into two groups (those who had been admitted again for self-inflicted injuries or non-suicidal self-harm (104; 59.1%), and those who had not (72; 40.9%) during the following 12 months.

The results obtained offer (i) a specific socio-demographic profile in which women (OR [CI95%] = 6.22[6.03-7.11]) aged 21-22 (OR [CI95%] = 4.71[4.29- 5.73]) who are students (OR [CI95%] = 2.99 [1.58-6.01]) are likely to inflict a new self-injury on themselves after 12 months, and (ii) a clear clinical profile where several afflictions are predictors of a new self-injury after 12 months.

We discuss the urgent need to develop specific health protocols and improve public health alert measures for certain subpopulations.