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FUNDAMENTAL FACTS ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH 2016

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Base: adults aged 16-74 and living in England<br />

%<br />

6<br />

5<br />

4<br />

3<br />

2<br />

1<br />

Women<br />

Men<br />

0<br />

2000 2007 2014<br />

Year<br />

Figure 1g: Suicidal thoughts in the past year by sex – 2000, 2007 and 2014<br />

McManus, S., Hassiotis, A., Jenkins, R., Dennis, M., Aznar, C., & Appleby, L. (<strong>2016</strong>). Chapter 12: Suicidal thoughts,<br />

suicide attempts, and self-harm. In S. McManus, P. Bebbington, R. Jenkins, & T. Brugha (Eds.), Mental health<br />

and wellbeing in England: Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey 2014. Leeds: NHS Digital.<br />

Self-harm<br />

Self-harm is a broad category covering<br />

any deliberate self-injury, and can occur<br />

with or without suicidal intent. Self-harm<br />

is especially common among younger<br />

people, and is linked to anxiety and<br />

depression, although it also affects adults<br />

and those with no diagnosed mental<br />

health problem.<br />

Unlike in the case of suicide, it is very<br />

difficult to gather reliable statistics about<br />

self-harm; most studies focus on hospital<br />

admissions (90% of which are for selfpoisoning,<br />

often with suicidal intent), but<br />

many cases of self-harm do not lead to<br />

hospital admission. 83<br />

The number of hospital admissions<br />

due to intentional self-harm has been<br />

rising over the last decade, from 91,341<br />

in September 2005–August 2006 to<br />

112,096 in September 2014–August<br />

2015 – a decrease of 1.8% from the<br />

previous 12-month period, when there<br />

were 114,105 admissions. There were<br />

69,800 female admissions (a 0.6%<br />

decrease from the 70,209 admission<br />

episodes recorded in the previous 12<br />

months) and 42,282 male admissions<br />

(a 3.6% decrease from the 43,871<br />

admissions the year before). Women<br />

and girls comprise the majority (62%) of<br />

admissions for intentional self-harm. 84<br />

• A <strong>2016</strong> observational study of<br />

self-harm among people (aged 15<br />

and over) presenting to hospital<br />

in England between 2000 and<br />

2012 found that rates of self-harm<br />

were 362 per 100,000 population<br />

in males and 441 per 100,000<br />

population in females (who<br />

accounted for 58.6% of the episodes<br />

recorded). 85<br />

• Self-harm commonly co-occurs<br />

with depression, anxiety, borderline<br />

personality disorder and eating<br />

disorders. 86<br />

• In 2014, statistics found that 1 in<br />

15 people (7.3%) had self-harmed<br />

at some point in their life. This was<br />

higher in women (8.9%) than in men<br />

(5.7%). The rates did not differ by<br />

ethnic group. 87<br />

24

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