Self-injury and its relationship to diagnostic schemes in psychopathology

It is argued that self-injury should be conceptualized within accepted diagnostic schemes prevalent in the United States and abroad. This approach is viewed as having several benefits including better and more clearly emphasizing to practitioners the nature of the problem by inclusion in DSM III and related diagnostic systems that are readily available in applied settings. It is believed that encorporating self-injury more clearly as a diagnostic entity would also have the result of further legitimizing it for reimbursement by third party payers who routinely use DSM III categories. Additional issues pertaining to the relationship of self-injury to diagnosis are discussed.