Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T01:04:28.520Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Self-incineration: a controlled comparison of in-patient suicide attempts. Clinical features and history of self-harm

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 August 2011

R. Jacobson ,
M. Jackson  and
M. Berelowitz
R. Jacobson*
Affiliation:
Fromthe Institute of Psychiatry, London
M. Jackson
Affiliation:
Fromthe Institute of Psychiatry, London
M. Berelowitz
Affiliation:
Fromthe Institute of Psychiatry, London
*
1Address for correspondence: Dr R. Jacobson, Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, Denmark Hill, London SE5 8AF.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Synopsis

A systematic survey of in-patient accidents and injuries in an inner London hospital over 9 years established that, after incisions and overdoses, self-incineration was one of the commoner methods of violent self-harm. A case-controlled study of in-patient suicide attempts compared a series of 12 self-incinerators with 12 patients using other methods. Irrespective of method, the suicide attempt was predominantly a psychotic act of young single people with chronic, severe disorders and considerable past parasuicide, in a setting of escalating self-harm. Younger age, greater psychiatric morbidity, absence of alcoholism, a history of childhood arson, past and current self-burning were the features specific to self-incineration, which had a 25% mortality rate.

Type
Research Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 16 , Issue 1 , February 1986 , pp. 107 - 116
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1986

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

Aiken, G. J. M. (1984). Assaults on staff in a locked ward: prediction and consequences. Medicine, Science and the Law 24, 199–207.Google Scholar
Andreasen, N. C. & Noyes, R. (1975). Suicide attempted by self-immolation. American Journal of Psychiatry 132, 554–556.Google Scholar
Ashton, J. R. & Donnan, S. (1981). Suicide by burning as an epidemic phenomenon: an analysis of 82 deaths and inquests in England and Wales in 1978-9. Psychological Medicine 11, 735–739.Google Scholar
Barraclough, B. M., Bunch, J., Nelson, B. & Sainsbury, P. (1974). A hundred cases of suicide: clinical aspects. British Journal of Psychiatry 125, 355–373.Google Scholar
Barraclough, B. M., Shepherd, D. & Jennings, C. (1977). Do newspaper reports of coroners' inquests incite people to commit suicide? British Journal of Psychiatry 131, 528–532.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Berkson, J. (1946). Limitations of the application of four-fold table analysis to hospital data. Biometrics 2, 247–253.Google Scholar
Breier, A. & Astrachan, B. M. (1984). Characterisation of schizophrenia patients who commit suicide. American Journal of Psychiatry 141, 206–209.Google ScholarPubMed
Crammer, J. L. (1984). The special characteristics of suicide in hospital in-patients. British Journal of Psychiatry 145, 460–476.Google Scholar
Crosby, K., Rhee, J. O. & Holland, J. (1977). Suicide by fire: a contemporary method of political protest. International Journal of Social Psychiatry 23, 160–169.Google Scholar
Farberow, N. L., Schneidman, E. S. & Neuringer, C. (1966). Case history and hospitalisation factors in suicides of neuropsychiatric hospital patients. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 142, 32–44.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Farberow, N. L., Ganzler, S., Cutter, F. & Reynolds, D. (1971). An eight-year survey on hospital suicides. Life-Threatening Behaviour 1, 184–202.Google Scholar
Grunebaum, H. U. & Klerman, G. L. (1967). Wrist slashing. American Journal of Psychiatry 124, 527–534.Google Scholar
Guardian (1978). Woman set fire to herself to escape pain; 12 October.Google Scholar
Hesso, R. (1977). Suicide in Norwegian, Finnish and Swedish psychiatric hospitals. Archiv für Psychiatrie und Nervenkrankheiten 224, 119–127.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Huxley, P. & Goldberg, D. (1980). Mental Illness in the Community: the Pathways to Psychiatric Care. Tavistock: London.Google Scholar
Jacobson, R. R. (1985). Child firesetters: a clinical investigation. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry (in the press.)Google Scholar
James, W. (1902). The Varieties of Religious Experience. Collins/Fount paperbacks: London (1977 reprint).Google Scholar
Kennedy, P., Kreitman, N. & Ovenstone, I. M. K. (1974). The prevalence of suicide and parasuicide (‘attempted suicide’) in Edinburgh. British Journal of Psychiatry 124, 36–42.Google Scholar
King, E. (1983). Identifying outpatients and ex-patients who have died suddenly. Bulletin of the Royal College of Psychiatrists 7, 4–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knights, A. & Hirsch, S. R. (1981). ‘Revealed’ depression and drug treatment for schizophrenia. Archives of General Psychiatry 38, 806–811.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kushner, A. W. (1967). Two cases of auto-castration due to religious delusions. British Journal of Medical Psychology 40, 293–298.Google Scholar
Langley, G. E. & Bayatti, N. N. (1984). Suicides in Exe Vale Hospital, 1972-1981. British Journal of Psychiatry 145, 463–467.Google Scholar
Lonnqvist, J., Niskanen, P., Rinta-Manty, R., Achte, K. & Karha, E. (1974). Suicides in psychiatric hospitals in different therapeutic eras: a review of the literature and own study. Psychiatria Fennica 265–273.Google Scholar
Modan, B., Nissenkorn, I. & Lewkowski, S. R. (1970). Comparative epidemiological aspects of suicide and attempted suicide in Israel. American Journal of Epidemiology 91, 383–389.Google Scholar
Morgan, H. G. (1979). Death Wishes? The Understanding and Management of Deliberate Self-Harm. John Wiley: Chichester.Google Scholar
Morgan, H. G. & Priest, P. (1984). Assessment of suicide risk in psychiatric in-patients. British Journal of Psychiatry 145, 467–469.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pao, P. N. (1969). The syndrome of delicate self-cutting. British Journal of Medical Psychology 42, 195–206.Google Scholar
Patterson, G. R. (1982). Coercive Family Processes. Castalia Publishing Co.: Eugene, Oregon.Google Scholar
Perris, C., Beskow, H. & Jacobsson, L. (1980). Some remarks on the incidence of successful suicide in psychiatric care. Social Psychiatry 15, 161–166.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Revenstorf, D., Hahlweg, K., Schindler, L. & Vogel, B. (1984). Interactional analysis of marital conflict. In Marital Interaction. Analysis and Modification (ed. Hahlweg, K. and Jacobson, N. S.), pp. 159–181. Guilford Press: New York.Google Scholar
Roy, A. (1982). Suicide in chronic schizophrenia. British Journal of Psychiatry 141, 174–177.Google Scholar
Shaw, S.& Sims, A. (1984). A survey of unexpected deaths among psychiatric in-patients and ex-patients. British Journal of Psychiatry 145, 473–476.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sims, A. & O'Brien, K. (1979). Autokabalesis: an account of mentally ill people who jump from buildings. Medicine, Science and the Law 191, 195–197.Google Scholar
Stengel, E. & Cook, N. G. (1958). Attempted Suicide, its Social Significance and Effects. Maudsley Monograph No. 4. Oxford University Press: London.Google Scholar
Topp, D. O. (1973). Fire as a symbol and as a weapon of death. Medicine, Science and the Law 13, 79–86.Google Scholar
Waldenberg, S. S. A. (1972). Wrist cutting-a psychiatric enquiry. M. Phil, dissertation: University of London.Google Scholar
Wing, J. K., Cooper, J. E. & Sartorius, N. (1974). The Measurement and Classification of Psychiatric Symptoms. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.Google Scholar