A NEW link has been identified between acts of deliberate self-harm such as overdose or self-cutting and suicide in Irish men who have taken their own lives.
The National Suicide Research Foundation (NSRF) is working with the coroner’s court in Cork where a cluster of 18 young people – mainly young men – took their own lives in one area between September 2008 and March 2010.
Dr Ella Arensman, director of research at the NSRF and vice-president of the International Association for Suicide Prevention, said the full report would not be ready until October, but the preliminary outcomes showed a link between deliberate self-harm and suicidal behaviour, especially in men.
“This finding is in line with the international findings. If a man engages in an overdose or act of self-cutting or other act of self-harm, he is more likely to engage in further acts of self-harm or suicide in the future than a woman,” she said.
In a special research bulletin to coincide with World Suicide Day at the weekend, Dr Arensman noted that Ireland was in the fourth year of an increase in cases of deliberate self-harm coming through emergency departments.
The 2010 annual report of the National Registry of Deliberate Self-Harm has also shown that the most striking increase in the rate of deliberate self-harm between 2009 and 2010 was among 20-24 year olds and was likely to be linked to the recession.
Alcohol was involved in 41 per cent of all cases, and was significantly more common in episodes of male (44 per cent) than in female (37 per cent) deliberate self-harm. Presentations to emergency departments peaked in the hours about midnight and almost one-third of all presentations occurred on Sundays and Mondays.
Dr Arensman said: “Michael Noonan announced last week that there are going to be severe cuts in suicide prevention funding. The big concern I have is that most organisations have already had cuts over the last four years at the same time that we have seen self-harm and suicides rates going up. It would be unethical to make further cuts. It’s a matter of saving lives – or not.”
