Major Changes Needed to Improve the Care of Older Adults Who Self-Harm

A study published in The Lancet Psychiatry found adults 65 and older who self-harm have a higher risk of death from unnatural causes, especially suicide, reports Medical Xpress . The researchers focused on self-harm episodes among older men and women registered at 674 general practices in Britain between 2001 and 2014. To probe mortality risk following self-harm, they compared data from 2,454 of these individuals with 48,921 persons without a history of self-harm. Over the study period, 4,124 subjects had an episode of self-harm, and 58 percent were women while 62 percent had previously received mental health diagnoses. Drug overdose was the most common method of self-harm, followed by cutting. Just 12 percent of subjects who had self-harmed were referred to mental health services within a year of their initial episode. Referrals were 33 percent likely for older adults registered at practices located in the most deprived areas versus those from more affluent communities. Nearly 75 percent of people who had harmed themselves were prescribed psychotropics, most commonly antidepressants. One in seven older adults had a self-harm episode recur within a year of the initial incident. Older self-harming adults were 19 times more likely to die from unnatural causes in the first year after a self-harm episode, and 145 times more likely to die of suicide during the 13-year follow up.