@article{ref1,
title="General practitioners' accounts of patients who have self-harmed",
journal="Crisis",
year="2015",
author="Chandler, Amy and King, Caroline and Burton, Christopher and Platt, Stephen",
volume="37",
number="1",
pages="42-50",
abstract="BACKGROUND: The relationship between self-harm and suicide is contested. Self-harm is simultaneously understood to be largely nonsuicidal but to increase risk of future suicide. Little is known about how self-harm is conceptualized by general practitioners (GPs) and particularly how they assess the suicide risk of patients who have self-harmed. AIMS: The study aimed to explore how GPs respond to patients who had self-harmed. In this paper we analyze GPs' accounts of the relationship between self-harm, suicide, and suicide risk assessment. <br><br>METHOD: Thirty semi-structured interviews were held with GPs working in different areas of Scotland. Verbatim transcripts were analyzed thematically. <br><br>RESULTS: GPs provided diverse accounts of the relationship between self-harm and suicide. Some maintained that self-harm and suicide were distinct and that risk assessment was a matter of asking the right questions. Others suggested a complex inter-relationship between self-harm and suicide; for these GPs, assessment was seen as more subjective. In part, these differences appeared to reflect the socioeconomic contexts in which the GPs worked. <br><br>CONCLUSION: There are different conceptualizations of the relationship between self-harm, suicide, and the assessment of suicide risk among GPs. These need to be taken into account when planning training and service development.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0227-5910",
doi="10.1027/0227-5910/a000325",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1027/0227-5910/a000325"
}