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. 2015 Jan 30:2:2.
doi: 10.1186/s40479-014-0024-3. eCollection 2015.

The longitudinal course of non-suicidal self-injury and deliberate self-harm: a systematic review of the literature

Paul L Plener  1 , Teresa S Schumacher  1 , Lara M Munz  1 , Rebecca C Groschwitz  1
Affiliations

The longitudinal course of non-suicidal self-injury and deliberate self-harm: a systematic review of the literature

Paul L Plener et al. Borderline Personal Disord Emot Dysregul. .

Abstract

Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) has been proposed as diagnostic entity and was added to the section 3 of the DSM 5. Nevertheless, little is known about the long-term course of this disorder and many studies have pointed to the fact that NSSI seems to be volatile over time. We aimed to assemble studies providing longitudinal data about NSSI and furthermore included studies using the definition of deliberate self-harm (DSH) to broaden the epidemiological picture. Using a systematic search strategy, we were able to retrieve 32 studies reporting longitudinal data about NSSI and DSH. We furthermore aimed to describe predictors for the occurrence of NSSI and DSH that were identified in these longitudinal studies. Taken together, there is evidence for an increase in rates of NSSI and DSH in adolescence with a decline in young adulthood. With regards to predictors, rates of depressive symptoms and female gender were often reported as predictor for both NSSI and DSH.

Keywords: Deliberate self-harm; Longitudinal study; Non-suicidal self-injury; Predictors; Systematic review.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flow-chart of study selection.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Studies on prevalence of NSSI in adolescent community samples. Only studies giving information about mean age of participants, and which used the same prevalence measures for each time-point, were included. For individual prevalence time-frames (i.e. 3-months, 6 months, etc.) of each study see Table 1.
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