[The types of deliberate self-harm and its prevalence among Lithuanian teenagers].
The aim of this study is to identify how widely deliberate self-harm is spread and the types of deliberate self-harm among 15-17-year-old teenagers in Lithuania.


METHODS
The anonymous Lifestyle and Coping Questionnaire was used for the study carried out in 2006. This countrywide study involved 3848 respondents (2200 girls (57.2 %) and 1648 boys (42.8%)) aged 15-17 years from all 10 regions of Lithuania.


RESULTS
According to the findings of this study, 7.3% of 15-17-year-old Lithuanian teenagers (9.9% girls and 3.8% boys) stated that they had deliberately overdosed drugs or tried to inflict self-injury in other ways. Less than half of them (43.4%) reported that they were thinking to repeat such behavior. Half of the adolescents who inflicted self-injury were living in a two-parent family, 27.4% - with one of the parents, 7% - with other member of the family, and 9% - with other people. One-third of adolescents (34.2%) choose internal ways of self-harm, 26% - external self-injury, 11% - tried to harm themselves in mixed way, and 28.8% - did not indicate the way. In case of a self-injury mentioned above, 13.5% of adolescents were admitted to hospital.


CONCLUSIONS
In Lithuania, adolescent self-harm is relatively frequent: 7.3% of 15-17-year-old Lithuanian adolescents deliberately self-harmed during their life. The most frequent way to self-harm is to overdose. This study confirms the need for preventive activities and necessity of further studies in this field.
Laskyte
Agne
A
Faculty of Public Health, Kaunas University of Medicine, Eiveniu 4, 50009 Kaunas, Lithuania. alaskyte@yahoo.com
Zemaitiene
Nida
N
D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D000435:Alcoholic Intoxication; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008097:Lithuania / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D012424:Rural Population; D016728:Self-Injurious Behavior / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D012737:Sex Factors; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders; D013406:Suicide, Attempted / Q000517:prevention & control; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014505:Urban Population; D000092864:Suicide Prevention