Research
The following are the specific investigations within the areas of research;
Epidemiology and trends in self-harm
- Rates and trends in self-harm and socio-demographic and clinical characteristics of self-harm patients:
- adults
- children and adolescents
- older people
- Rates and trends in self-harm in ethnic groups including Black (Caribbean and African), South Asian (Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Sri Lankan), Chinese and White groups
- Alcohol and drug misuse and self-harm
- Characteristics of frequent repeaters of self-harm
- Impact of the recession on self-harm
Clinical management of self-harm
- Determinants of type of hospital management following self-harm, and the relationship between management and outcome
- Validation and refinement of a clinical screening tool to identify risk of repetition of self-harm or suicide following a self-harm episode
- Relationship between psychosocial assessment following self-harm and subsequent repetition of self-harm, in both the short-term and longer term
Outcome of self-harm, including repetition and mortality
- Risk of suicide following self-harm in gender and age subgroups, and changes over time
- Risk factors for suicide
- Risk of death from non-suicidal causes
- Mortality following self-harm in
- children and adolescents
- older people
- people who misuse alcohol and drugs
- people in current psychiatric contact
- different ethnic groups
- Change in use of different methods of self-harm between episodes and relationship to outcome
- Pharmaco-epidemiology, including drug toxicology and impacts of changes in prescribing legislation and trends.
Analgesics
- Impact on self-harm of MHRA decision to withdraw co-proxamol
- Comparison of size of overdoses of paracetamol in England and Ireland in relation to differing pack sizes
Antidepressants
- Relationship between use of specific antidepressants in self-poisoning and prescribing rates
- Relative toxicity (lethality) of individual antidepressants
- Trends in self-poisoning with SSRI antidepressants over time and in relation to MHRA warnings
Toxicity
- Relative toxicity of individual drugs used for self-harm and suicide