title: [Understanding and treating self-injury].
abstract: Recently self-injurious behavior including wrist-cutting among youth has been a serious problem in Japan. Self-injury is the act to injure oneself deliberately without a suicidal intent, by a nonfatal method, predicting a nonfatal consequence. It is frequently repeated to cope with distress, for instance, to reduce an intolerable and painful feeling. Self-injury is the act to be differentiated from suicide, and often cause a negative attitude in mental health professionals, although many previous studies reveal that individuals with self-injury are more likely to death by suicide than those without, and that self-injury may be one of the important risk factors predicting future suicide. In this paper, the author gives an outline of understanding and treating self-injury, and indicates that to support and care self-injuring youth by mental health professionals may contribute to suicide prevention in adolescence.
authors.affiliation: Department of Drug Dependence Research/Center for Suicide Prevention, National Institute of Mental Health, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry.
authors.forename: Toshihiko
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Matsumoto
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D016728:Self-Injurious Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D000092864:Suicide Prevention