Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T04:40:51.407Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

People who deliberately poison or injure themselves: their problems and their contacts with helping agencies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

John Bancroft ,
Angela Skrimshire ,
Jeannette Casson ,
Olivia Harvard-Watts  and
Frances Reynolds
John Bancroft*
Affiliation:
Oxford University Department of Psychiatry, Warneford Hospital, Oxford
Angela Skrimshire
Affiliation:
Oxford University Department of Psychiatry, Warneford Hospital, Oxford
Jeannette Casson
Affiliation:
Oxford University Department of Psychiatry, Warneford Hospital, Oxford
Olivia Harvard-Watts
Affiliation:
Oxford University Department of Psychiatry, Warneford Hospital, Oxford
Frances Reynolds
Affiliation:
Oxford University Department of Psychiatry, Warneford Hospital, Oxford
*
1Address for correspondence: Dr John Bancroft, MRC Reproductive Biology Unit, 2 Forrest Rd, Edinburgh EH1 2QW.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Synopsis

A representative sample of 130 people was interviewed shortly following self-poisoning or self-injury. The interview method is described. Events in the week prior to the attempt, and the incidence of various kinds of chronic problems are reported. Events involving key relationships were much more common than other kinds. The most important event was a quarrel, particularly in the 48 hours prior to the attempts and more common with female than with male attempters. The possible relevance of quarrels to understanding overdose behaviour is discussed.

Nearly a third were receiving non-psychiatric treatment at the time of the ‘attempt’ Approximately one quarter were currently receiving psychiatric treatment and a half had received it at some time. A substantial proportion had been admitted to either psychiatric or non-psychiatric hospitals within the past year.

The proportions indicating the need for various kinds of help are reported. Most people said they needed ‘someone to talk to’. More than half had been in contact with some form of helping agency during the week prior to the attempt. The possible significance of these findings is discussed.

An attempt was made to look for ‘syndromes’ or groupings of problems. The resulting analysis, whilst of interest, did not lead to a satisfactory method for classifying individuals. It was concluded that a more satisfactory typology of ‘attempters’ is likely if types of relationship problems are investigated in more detail.

Type
Research Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 7 , Issue 2 , May 1977 , pp. 289 - 303
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1977

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Bagley, C. (1970). Causes and prevention of repeated attempted suicide. Social and Economic Administration 4, 322–330.Google Scholar
Bancroft, J. H. J., Skrimshire, A. M., Reynolds, F., Simkin, S. & Smith, J. (1975). Self-poisoning and self-injury in the Oxford area. Epidemiological aspects 1969–73. British Journal of Preventive and Social Medicine 29, 170–177.Google ScholarPubMed
Bancroft, J. H. J., Skrimshire, A. M. & Simkin, S. (1976). The reasons people give for taking overdoses. British Journal of Psychiatry 128, 538–548.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bhagat, M. (1976). The spouses of attempted suicides: a personality study. British Journal of Psychiatry 128, 44–46.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brown, G. W., Sklair, F., Harris, T. O. & Birley, J. L. T. (1973). Life events and psychiatric disorders: 1. Some methodological issues. Psychological Medicine 3, 74–87.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brown, G. W., Bhrolchain, M. N. & Harris, T. (1975). Social class and psychiatric disturbance among women in an urban population. Sociology 9, 225–254.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
General Household Survey 1972 (1975). HMSO: London.Google Scholar
Goodman, L. H. & Kruskal, W. H. (1954). Measures of association for cross classification. Journal of the American Statistical Association 49, 732.Google Scholar
Greer, S., Gunn, J. C. & Koller, K. M. (1966). Aetiological factors in attempted suicide. British Medical Journal ii, 1352–1355.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harrington, J. A. & Cross, K. W. (1959). Cases of attempted suicide admitted to a general hospital. British Medical Journal ii, 463–467.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hawton, K. E. & Blackstock, E. E. (1976). General practice aspects of self-poisoning and self-injury. Psychological Medicine 6, 571–575.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hawton, K. E., Bancroft, J. H. J., Kingston, B., Cumming, C. & Whitwell, D. Motives for self-poisoning, Submitted for publication.Google Scholar
Katschnig, H. (1974). Cited in: Suicide and Attempted Suicide (ed. Brooke, E. M.), pp. 95–99. WHO: Geneva.Google Scholar
Kessel, N. (1965). Self-poisoning. British Medical Journal ii, 1265, 1336.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kreitman, N. (1976). Age and parasuicide. Psychological Medicine 6, 113–121.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kreitman, N. & Chowdhury, N. (1973). Distress behaviour: a study of selected Samaritan clients and parasuicide patients. II. Attitudes and action. British Journal of Psychiatry 123, 9–14.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McCulloch, J. W. & Philip, A. E. (1972). Suicidal Behaviour. Pergamon: Oxford.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morgan, H. G., Burns-Cox, C. J., Pocock, H. & Pottle, S. (1975). Deliberate self-harm: clinical and socio-economic characteristics of 368 patients. British Journal of Psychiatry 127, 564–574.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Paykel, E. S., Prusoff, B. H. & Myers, J. K. (1975). Suicide attempts and recent life events: a controlled comparison. Archives of General Psychiatry 32, 327–333.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Philip, A. E. (1970). Traits, attitudes and symptoms in a group of attempted suicides. British Journal of Psychiatry 116, 475–482.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shephard, R. N., Romney, A. K. & Nerlove, S. B. (1973). Multidimensional Scaling. Seminar Press: New York.Google Scholar
Vinoda, K. S. (1966). Personality characteristics of attempted suicide. British Journal of Psychiatry 112, 1143.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weissman, M., Fox, K. & Klerman, G. L. (1973). Hostility and depression associated with suicide attempts. American Journal of Psychiatry 130, 450–454.Google ScholarPubMed
Wold, C. I. (1971). Sub groupings of suicidal people. Omega 2, 12–19.Google Scholar