title: Self-injury in people with intellectual disability and epilepsy: a matched controlled study.
abstract: We aimed to identify the presence of self-injurious behavior in a sample of 158 people with intellectual disability and epilepsy as compared with a control sample consisting of 195 people with intellectual disability without epilepsy. The Italian Scale for the Assessment of self-injurious behaviors was used to describe self-injurious behavior in both groups. The groups were matched for ID degree: mild/moderate (20 and 20 respectively), severe/profound (45 in both samples) and unknown (4 in both samples). Seventy-four percent of the first sample were diagnosed with symptomatic partial epilepsy. The prevalence of self-injurious behaviors was 44% in the group with intellectual disability and epilepsy and 46.5% in the group with intellectual disability without epilepsy (difference not significant). The areas most affected by self-injurious behaviors in both samples were the hands, the mouth and the head. The most frequent types of self-injurious behaviors were self-biting, self-hitting with hands and with objects. Self-injurious behavior is frequently observed in individuals with epilepsy and intellectual disability. Our study does not suggest that the presence of epilepsy is a risk factor for self-injurious behavior in this patient group.
authors.affiliation: Unit of Psychology, IRCCS Oasi Maria SS., Troina (EN), Italy. fbuono@oasi.en.it
authors.forename: Serafino
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Buono
authors.forename: Fabio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Scannella
authors.forename: Maria Bernadette
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Palmigiano
authors.forename: Maurizio
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Elia
authors.forename: Mike
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kerr
authors.forename: Santo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Di Nuovo
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000150:complications*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008607:Intellectual Disability / Q000150:complications*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D016728:Self-Injurious Behavior / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology*; D055815:Young Adult