%0 Journal Article
%T Adolescent self-harm and suicidal thoughts in the ALSPAC cohort: a self-report survey in England
%J BMC psychiatry
%D 2012
%A Kidger, Judi
%A Heron, Jon
%A Lewis, Glyn
%A Evans, Jonathan
%A Gunnell, David
%V 12
%N 1
%P 69-69
%X BACKGROUND: Substantial numbers of adolescents self-harm, but the majority of cases do not reach the attention of medical services, making community studies essential. The prevalence of suicidal thoughts and plans at this age, and the inter-relationships between suicidal thoughts, plans and self-harm remain largely unexplored. METHOD: Cross-sectional analysis of a postal survey of the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) birth cohort, England. Respondents (n=4810) were aged 16-17 years old. RESULTS: Of all respondents, 905 (18.8%) had ever self-harmed - one quarter of whom wanted to die in their most recent episode - 15.8% had ever thought of killing themselves, and 4.3% had ever made plans to do so. Among those who had self-harmed and wanted to die, 90.4% had ever had suicidal thoughts, compared to 37.6% of those who had self-harmed but not wanted to die, and 7.8% of those who had never self-harmed (chi-square statistic =102.3, p<0.001). Those who self-harmed with and without desire to die were also at substantially increased risk of suicidal plans (52.8% and 8.7% respectively compared to 0.7%, 2 =166.9, p<0.001). As the frequency of self-harm increased, so did the risk of suicidal thoughts and plans. CONCLUSIONS: Self-harm and suicidal thoughts are common among 16/17 year olds, and may be on the increase. Although the majority of self-harm behaviour is not accompanied by a desire to die, those who self-harm both with and without a desire to die are at greatly increased risk of suicidal thoughts and plans.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>
%G en
%I Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group - BMC
%@ 1471-244X
%U http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-244X-12-69