Citation

Shnaigat WM, Abdallat A, Bawaneh K, Ru'od A, Salim HA. Pan Arab Med. J. 2006; 2005(5): 56-61.

Affiliation

Royal Medical Services, Amman, Jordan.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2006, PAMJ)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Objective: To study the sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of deliberate self-harm syndrome among Jordanian patients.

Patients and method: The study was carried out prospectively between Jan 97 and Dec 2000 at two peripheral hospitals in Jordan and it included all patients presented to the psychiatric out-patient clinic with (DSM IV) based diagnosis of deliberate self-harm syndrome, a total of 188 cases were collected.

Results: DSH is more common among females (110) than males (78) with a sex ratio F:M of 1.4:1.The majority of patients (85.1%) were aged between 10-29 years with a mean age of 23.69 years, (46.3%) were married and (46.3%) were single.The majority of the patients (87%) did not go beyond secondary school education and unemployment compromised (17.0%). The majority of the patients had self-poisoning (92.6%) rather than self-injury (7.4%). Analgesics and benzodiazepine were the most common substance ingested. The most common source of stress was related to family (30.9%) and spouse (19.7%). The majority of patients was referred from medical/surgical wards (54.3%), ICU (23.4%), emergency rooms (13.3%). Only one third wished to die, (12.2%) seeking escape and (17.6%) were uncertain about their motives. (21.6%) of the patients had a history of previous DSH and (11.2%) had a history of past psychiatric treatment and about one fourth of the patients had concurrent psychiatric disorder mostly being depression and personality disorders. The most common emotion experienced during the act was anger (26.1%) and frustration (26.1%) followed by depressed mood (17.6%) and despair (14.4%).

Conclusion: DSH is more common among young people of low educational attainment with slight excess among females; past psychiatric treatment and previous attempts are risk factors.