Methods of deliberate self-harm in a tertiary hospital in South Africa

South African Journal of Psychiatry

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Methods of deliberate self-harm in a tertiary hospital in South Africa
 
Creator Pieterse, Deirdre Hoare, Jacqueline Louw, Kerry-Ann Breet, Elsie Henry, Michelle Lewis, Ian Bantjes, Jason
 
Subject Psychiatry; Public Health; Psychology deliberate self-harm; non-fatal suicide; general hospital; mental health; methods of self-harm; means restriction; suicide prevention
Description Background: Little is known about the methods of deliberate self-harm (DSH) in South Africa (SA), despite the importance of means restriction as a public health strategy to reduce the morbidity and mortality associated with self-harm.Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate the range of methods used in DSH and identify the socio-demographic and clinical factors associated with violent and non-violent methods of DSH among patients treated at a tertiary hospital in SA.Setting: The study was conducted at an urban, tertiary level emergency department at Groote Schuur hospital in Cape Town, South Africa.Method: Data were collected from 238 consecutive DSH patients who presented for emergency department treatment at the hospital. Logistic regression models were used to explore the factors associated with violent and non-violent methods of DSH.Results: Self-poisoning was the most common method of self-harm (80.3%). Prescription medication was the most common form of self-poison (57.6%), while a large number of patients used non-prescription paracetamol (40.9%). In the regression analysis, male gender, stating that the reason for DSH was to escape a situation and history of substance use were associated with violent method of DSH.Conclusion: Improved monitoring of prescription medications commonly used in DSH is integral to public health suicide prevention strategies in SA. This study underscores the need for substance use interventions in the healthcare setting.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor The National Research Foundation South African Medical Research Council
Date 2020-04-21
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Descriptive, cross-sectional study
Format text/html text/xml application/epub+zip application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/sajpsychiatry.v26i0.1399
 
Source South African Journal of Psychiatry; Vol 26 (2020); 7 pages 2078-6786 1608-9685
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://sajp.org.za/index.php/sajp/article/view/1399/1650 https://sajp.org.za/index.php/sajp/article/view/1399/1649 https://sajp.org.za/index.php/sajp/article/view/1399/1648 https://sajp.org.za/index.php/sajp/article/view/1399/1647
 
Coverage Africa; South Africa; Western Cape; Cape Town Metropole 2014-2015 patients presenting to general hospital with deliberate self-harm
Rights Copyright (c) 2020 Deirdre Pieterse, Jacqueline Hoare, Kerry-Ann Louw, Elsie Breet, Michelle Henry, Ian Lewis, Jason Bantjes https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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