title: Self-injurious behavior: differential diagnosis and functional differentiation.
abstract: Although often used as synonyms, "self-injury" and "self-harm" may refer to different behaviors with different meanings. Because the literature is quite confusing in this respect, we propose a more specific delineation of the notion of self-injurious behavior (SIB), differentiated from other self-harming behaviors. For this purpose, we present a flowchart for differential diagnosis. This brings us to the question: are we dealing here with a sign of pathology or a meaningful behavior? We compare the structuralist approach, in which SIB is viewed as either a syndrome or a symptom, with the functionalist approach, focusing on the psychosocial functions of SIB.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Catholic University Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium. laurence.claes@psy.kuleuven.be
authors.forename: Laurence
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Claes
authors.forename: Walter
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Vandereycken
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D003142:Communication; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D006801:Humans; D012652:Self Mutilation / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D016728:Self-Injurious Behavior / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D012917:Social Adjustment; D012985:Software Design