Self-harm in UK armed forces personnel: descriptive and case-control study of general hospital presentations.
BACKGROUND: Little is known about self-harm in the armed forces. AIMS: To investigate the characteristics of armed forces personnel presenting to a general hospital following self-harm and compare these with matched controls who had self-harmed. METHOD: Investigation of armed forces personnel prese...
Hlavní autoři: | , , , , , , |
---|---|
Médium: | Journal article |
Jazyk: | English |
Vydáno: |
2009
|
_version_ | 1826264266579116032 |
---|---|
author | Hawton, K Harriss, L Casey, D Simkin, S Harrison, K Bray, I Blatchley, N |
author_facet | Hawton, K Harriss, L Casey, D Simkin, S Harrison, K Bray, I Blatchley, N |
author_sort | Hawton, K |
collection | OXFORD |
description | BACKGROUND: Little is known about self-harm in the armed forces. AIMS: To investigate the characteristics of armed forces personnel presenting to a general hospital following self-harm and compare these with matched controls who had self-harmed. METHOD: Investigation of armed forces personnel presenting to hospital between 1989 and 2003 following self-harm and case-control comparison with people in the general population who had self-harmed. RESULTS: One hundred and sixty-six armed forces personnel presented with self-harm during the study period, of whom 72.3% (120) were male. Nearly two-thirds (62.7%) were aged under 25 years. Relationship problems (62.0%), employment problems (43.9%) and alcohol misuse (40.5%) were common. Fewer armed forces personnel than controls had evidence of current or past psychiatric disorders or treatment or a prior history of self-harm, and their suicidal intent was lower (males only). Of 64 people in the armed forces who presented during the first 9 years of the study period, 1 had died (from natural causes) by the end of 2000, compared with 9 (5.1%) of the controls, 6 by probable suicide. CONCLUSIONS: Self-harm by armed forces personnel may often be a response to interpersonal and employment problems complicated by alcohol misuse, with relatively low suicide intent. |
first_indexed | 2024-03-06T20:05:00Z |
format | Journal article |
id | oxford-uuid:289d18a3-c8c3-463f-bdc8-c32c98185c0d |
institution | University of Oxford |
language | English |
last_indexed | 2024-03-06T20:05:00Z |
publishDate | 2009 |
record_format | dspace |
spelling | oxford-uuid:289d18a3-c8c3-463f-bdc8-c32c98185c0d2022-03-26T12:14:00ZSelf-harm in UK armed forces personnel: descriptive and case-control study of general hospital presentations.Journal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:289d18a3-c8c3-463f-bdc8-c32c98185c0dEnglishSymplectic Elements at Oxford2009Hawton, KHarriss, LCasey, DSimkin, SHarrison, KBray, IBlatchley, N BACKGROUND: Little is known about self-harm in the armed forces. AIMS: To investigate the characteristics of armed forces personnel presenting to a general hospital following self-harm and compare these with matched controls who had self-harmed. METHOD: Investigation of armed forces personnel presenting to hospital between 1989 and 2003 following self-harm and case-control comparison with people in the general population who had self-harmed. RESULTS: One hundred and sixty-six armed forces personnel presented with self-harm during the study period, of whom 72.3% (120) were male. Nearly two-thirds (62.7%) were aged under 25 years. Relationship problems (62.0%), employment problems (43.9%) and alcohol misuse (40.5%) were common. Fewer armed forces personnel than controls had evidence of current or past psychiatric disorders or treatment or a prior history of self-harm, and their suicidal intent was lower (males only). Of 64 people in the armed forces who presented during the first 9 years of the study period, 1 had died (from natural causes) by the end of 2000, compared with 9 (5.1%) of the controls, 6 by probable suicide. CONCLUSIONS: Self-harm by armed forces personnel may often be a response to interpersonal and employment problems complicated by alcohol misuse, with relatively low suicide intent. |
spellingShingle | Hawton, K Harriss, L Casey, D Simkin, S Harrison, K Bray, I Blatchley, N Self-harm in UK armed forces personnel: descriptive and case-control study of general hospital presentations. |
title | Self-harm in UK armed forces personnel: descriptive and case-control study of general hospital presentations. |
title_full | Self-harm in UK armed forces personnel: descriptive and case-control study of general hospital presentations. |
title_fullStr | Self-harm in UK armed forces personnel: descriptive and case-control study of general hospital presentations. |
title_full_unstemmed | Self-harm in UK armed forces personnel: descriptive and case-control study of general hospital presentations. |
title_short | Self-harm in UK armed forces personnel: descriptive and case-control study of general hospital presentations. |
title_sort | self harm in uk armed forces personnel descriptive and case control study of general hospital presentations |
work_keys_str_mv | AT hawtonk selfharminukarmedforcespersonneldescriptiveandcasecontrolstudyofgeneralhospitalpresentations AT harrissl selfharminukarmedforcespersonneldescriptiveandcasecontrolstudyofgeneralhospitalpresentations AT caseyd selfharminukarmedforcespersonneldescriptiveandcasecontrolstudyofgeneralhospitalpresentations AT simkins selfharminukarmedforcespersonneldescriptiveandcasecontrolstudyofgeneralhospitalpresentations AT harrisonk selfharminukarmedforcespersonneldescriptiveandcasecontrolstudyofgeneralhospitalpresentations AT brayi selfharminukarmedforcespersonneldescriptiveandcasecontrolstudyofgeneralhospitalpresentations AT blatchleyn selfharminukarmedforcespersonneldescriptiveandcasecontrolstudyofgeneralhospitalpresentations |