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Six year follow-up of a clinical sample of self-harm patients

Six year follow-up of a clinical sample of self-harm patients
Six year follow-up of a clinical sample of self-harm patients
Background: mortality from suicide and other causes is significantly increased in patients who engage in self-harm, but their long-term morbidity and quality of life are poorly defined. As the majority of self-harm patients are under the age of 35 years, understanding their longer term health outcomes is important if we are to adequately manage their care. The aim of this study was to investigate the long-term mortality, morbidity and quality of life of such patients.
Method: a representative cohort of patients who had presented to hospital following an episode of self-harm was traced after 6 years. Mortality and repetition of self-harm were primary outcome measures. Psychiatric morbidity and indices of quality of life, and social functioning were also obtained.
Results: 143/150 (95.3%) patients were traced after a mean of 6.2 years. Eight (5.6%) had died during follow-up, significantly more than general population estimates (p ? 0.001), four of these (2.8%) by probable suicide. Further self-harm occurred in 58/101 (57.4%) participants; 70/97 (72.2%) fulfilled criteria for at least one psychiatric disorder, and 51.3% screened positive for harmful use of alcohol. Measures of health status (EQ-5D and SF36-II) were significantly lower (p < 0.001) than in the general population.
Limitations: due to the nature of this population group the attrition rate at 6 years is high; although this is the most complete such study to date.
Conclusion: despite positive outcomes in some patients, overall levels of mortality, morbidity, and harmful use of alcohol are high, whilst quality of life is reported as low. This has significant implications for the long-term management of this group.
0165-0327
247-252
Sinclair, Julia M.A.
be3e54d5-c6da-4950-b0ba-3cb8cdcab13c
Hawton, Keith
9f57477d-ec55-44f3-b172-20872ed9d02a
Gray, Alastair
0ecaf719-32ca-402c-9af5-78fd0538a2cf
Sinclair, Julia M.A.
be3e54d5-c6da-4950-b0ba-3cb8cdcab13c
Hawton, Keith
9f57477d-ec55-44f3-b172-20872ed9d02a
Gray, Alastair
0ecaf719-32ca-402c-9af5-78fd0538a2cf

Sinclair, Julia M.A., Hawton, Keith and Gray, Alastair (2010) Six year follow-up of a clinical sample of self-harm patients. Journal of Affective Disorders, 121 (3), 247-252. (doi:10.1016/j.jad.2009.05.027).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Background: mortality from suicide and other causes is significantly increased in patients who engage in self-harm, but their long-term morbidity and quality of life are poorly defined. As the majority of self-harm patients are under the age of 35 years, understanding their longer term health outcomes is important if we are to adequately manage their care. The aim of this study was to investigate the long-term mortality, morbidity and quality of life of such patients.
Method: a representative cohort of patients who had presented to hospital following an episode of self-harm was traced after 6 years. Mortality and repetition of self-harm were primary outcome measures. Psychiatric morbidity and indices of quality of life, and social functioning were also obtained.
Results: 143/150 (95.3%) patients were traced after a mean of 6.2 years. Eight (5.6%) had died during follow-up, significantly more than general population estimates (p ? 0.001), four of these (2.8%) by probable suicide. Further self-harm occurred in 58/101 (57.4%) participants; 70/97 (72.2%) fulfilled criteria for at least one psychiatric disorder, and 51.3% screened positive for harmful use of alcohol. Measures of health status (EQ-5D and SF36-II) were significantly lower (p < 0.001) than in the general population.
Limitations: due to the nature of this population group the attrition rate at 6 years is high; although this is the most complete such study to date.
Conclusion: despite positive outcomes in some patients, overall levels of mortality, morbidity, and harmful use of alcohol are high, whilst quality of life is reported as low. This has significant implications for the long-term management of this group.

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More information

Published date: 28 June 2010
Organisations: Clinical Neurosciences, Medicine

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 79470
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/79470
ISSN: 0165-0327
PURE UUID: 85d5dfd8-7e38-4e90-b0ef-c8539aa9e0e3
ORCID for Julia M.A. Sinclair: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-1905-2025

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Date deposited: 16 Mar 2010
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 02:40

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Author: Keith Hawton
Author: Alastair Gray

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