Self-harm linked to violence towards others: study

Researchers from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden studied about 1,850,525 individuals in total and followed them from age 15. People who are prone to self-harm are five times more likely to

commit violent crimes against others, a new study has found. Researchers from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden studied about 1,850,525 individuals in total and followed them from age 15.

During the study period about 55,185 received self-harm associated clinical care, 66,561 were convicted of a violent crime, and about 8,155 were both exposed to self-harm and convicted of a

violent crime. Researchers found that individuals who had at some time received clinical care for self-harm ran a five-fold risk of being convicted for a violent crime compared with those

who had never received care for self-harm. Almost as many men as women received clinical care for self-harm during the study period The risk of violent crime conviction was particularly high

for self-harming women with comorbid substance abuse, with a seven times increased risk for violent crime conviction, compared to women who had never received clinical care for self-harm,

researchers said. Even after controlling for relevant confounders, such as psychiatric co-morbidity and socioeconomic factors, self-harm was still associated with a doubled risk of violent

crime conviction, a finding that remained when men and women were analysed separately. "A susceptibility to self-harm seems to increase the risk of violent expression, but we found no

support for the hypothesis that self-harm causes violence crime," said Hanna Sahlin of Karolinska Institutet. "When we reversed the analysis and examined the risk of self-harm in

individuals convicted of a violent crime, we found a similar association," Sahlin said. "Taken together, this suggests that self-harm behaviour and violent criminality is a

manifestation of a common underlying vulnerability," she said. "We need to ask about aggressive behaviour towards others when we assess and treat self-harming individuals, but we

also need to ask about self-harm when we assess and treat aggressive individuals," Sahlin said. The study was published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry. (This article has not been edited

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