L. Cammisa, Italy

Sapienza University of Rome, Section of Child and Adolescent Neuropsychiatry Department of Human Neuroscience

Presenter of 1 Presentation

Oral Communications (ID 1110) AS47. Suicidology and suicide prevention

O297 - Non-Suicidal Self-Injury and Suicide Attempt: a continuum or separated identities?

Date
Sat, 10.04.2021
Session Time
07:00 - 21:00
Room
On Demand
Lecture Time
05:08 - 05:20
Presenter

ABSTRACT

Introduction

Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) has been proposed as diagnostic entity and was added in the section 3 of the DSM 5. However, little is known about the long-term course of the disorder: NSSI and suicide attempt (SA) often lie on a continuum of self-harm, but it’s still unclear if they represent two different nosografical entities. Both these groups are commonly enclosed in the term of Deliberate self-harm (DSH), also including self-harm with suicidal intent conditions.

Objectives

This study aims to explore differences between two clinical samples (NSSI and SA) to highlight the possible connection between these two categories, to better understand the risk of progression from NNSI into suicidal intent conditions.

Methods

102 inpatients with DSH (62 NNSI; 40 SA; age range: 12 to 18 years) were assessed by self-report questionnaires: the Deliberate Self-Harm Inventory (DSHI) and the Repetitive Non-suicidal Self-Injury Questionnaire (R-NSSI-Q) to explore the severity and repetitiveness of self-injurious behaviors and by the Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS) and Multi-Attitude Suicide Tendency scale (MAST), as indirect measures of suicidal risk.

Results

Preliminary results showed that inpatients with NSSI (62) presented high scores of indirect suicide risk, similar to SA sample (40).

Conclusions

This result highlights the possibility to consider NSSI and SA in a continuum of psychopathology and that repetitive self-harm even in the absence of clear suicidal intentions represent a significant risk factor in the development of suicidality in adolescence.

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