title: Behavioral contagion reconsidered: self-harm among adolescent psychiatric inpatients: a five-year study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The objective of this study was to examine the occurrence of behavioral contagion among inpatient adolescent psychiatric patients in terms of past self-harm related behaviors. Our goal was to isolate persistent self-harm behavior from self-harm behavior that could be considered truly contagious.
  
  
  METHODS
  We employed 5 years retrospective cohort study design in order to compare the occurrence of self-harm as inpatients among those with and without histories of self-harm behavior.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Our results indicate that the spontaneous occurrence of self-harm among inpatients without a history of self-harm is very low. While there appears to be a group that exhibits self-harm as inpatients, the tendency in this group is more towards a reduction of the intensity or a cessation of self-harming behavior.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Contagious self-harm does not appear to be a problem among inpatients with long stays on psychiatric treatment units. The overall tendency among inpatient adolescent psychiatric patients, especially those among those with histories of self-harm behavior is away from self-harming behavior.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Calgary.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Cawthorpe
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Somers
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Wilkes
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Phil