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The World Health Organization (WHO) states that suicide is one of the 20 most common causes of de... more The World Health Organization (WHO) states that suicide is one of the 20 most common causes of death – almost 1 million people across the globe die by suicide every year (data from 21 July 2014) [1]. Suicide is one of the most common causes of death among teenagers [2,3]. Another significant but much less known phenomenon is non-suicidal self-injury (self-harm). Despite the fact that we know much less about self-harm than about suicide, research during the past 10 years has indicated that self-harm occurs more frequently in the population of adolescents – whereas suicides affect 10% of teenagers, 7–14% of young people report to have performed a self-harming act at least once in their lives [4]. The most recent international research shows that the frequency of self-destructive behaviours in adolescents is at the level of 24% of the whole population, which might indicate an intensification of this phenomenon [5]. In some cases self-injury takes place with a clear intention of committing an act of suicide, or it can be a self-destructive act which often precedes a suicidal attempt, sometimes long before the final decision to carry it out. Nevertheless, in the majority of cases self-injuary is not performed with the intention of death. Therefore, the following question might be posed: do self-harm acts constitute a separate category of behaviours, or do they inevitably lead to suicidal death? When answering, we ought to take a closer look at both phenomena to have a better understanding of their aetiology, risk factors and frequency, and to understand when they co-occur and when they belong to different categories of self-aggressive behaviours. suicide / non-suicidal self-injury / auto-aggression
The World Health Organization (WHO) states that suicide is one of the 20 most common causes of de... more The World Health Organization (WHO) states that suicide is one of the 20 most common causes of death – almost 1 million people across the globe die by suicide every year (data from 21 July 2014) [1]. Suicide is one of the most common causes of death among teenagers [2,3]. Another significant but much less known phenomenon is non-suicidal self-injury (self-harm). Despite the fact that we know much less about self-harm than about suicide, research during the past 10 years has indicated that self-harm occurs more frequently in the population of adolescents – whereas suicides affect 10% of teenagers, 7–14% of young people report to have performed a self-harming act at least once in their lives [4]. The most recent international research shows that the frequency of self-destructive behaviours in adolescents is at the level of 24% of the whole population, which might indicate an intensification of this phenomenon [5]. In some cases self-injury takes place with a clear intention of committing an act of suicide, or it can be a self-destructive act which often precedes a suicidal attempt, sometimes long before the final decision to carry it out. Nevertheless, in the majority of cases self-injuary is not performed with the intention of death. Therefore, the following question might be posed: do self-harm acts constitute a separate category of behaviours, or do they inevitably lead to suicidal death? When answering, we ought to take a closer look at both phenomena to have a better understanding of their aetiology, risk factors and frequency, and to understand when they co-occur and when they belong to different categories of self-aggressive behaviours. suicide / non-suicidal self-injury / auto-aggression