A Study to Assess the Prevalence of Non-suicidal Self Injury and Reasons for that Behaviour among Adults and their Coping

Introduction: Non-Suicidal self-injury (NSSI) is both highly comorbid with suicidality among

adolescents and a significant predictor of suicide attempts (SAs) in adolescents.A broad variety of different functions can underlie acts of Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI).

Aims: To study prevalence and characteristics of Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) and functional purpose of that behaviour among Adults and their level of coping.

Study Design: Cross-sectional Analytical study.

Place and Duration of Study: The study is conducted in central medical university, Gujarat, India over a period of 30 days.

Methodology: Study was conducted among students of Central Medical University.195 participants were enrolled by consecutive random sampling. They were given a Google form to fill out Demographic details. The form also has an Inventory for NSSI (ISAS) to assess their NSSI behaviour and Brief Resilient Coping Scale (BRCS) to assess coping.

Results: Out of 195 participants, prevalence of NSSI behaviour is 49(25.12%). Among these 20(40.82%) are male & 29(59.18%) are female. Among sociodemographic data type of family is statistically significant(P value- 0.039). Mean age at which participants start self-harming is16.6 ± 2.89 years. During NSSI behaviour 51.02% of participants always feel pain and 16.32% of participants do not feel pain. Prevalence of NSSI behaviour is higher in 3rd or higher birth order (33.33%) compare to 1st(28.31%) and 2nd (19.67%).The most common method of self-harm was cutting (65.3%), followed by banging (61.22%) or hitting self. The most common functional reason for self-harm was affect regulation followed by self-punishment. of participants who are having NSSI behaviour. In this study we found that there is a statistically significant difference between various resilience coping and NSSI behavior.(P- 0.0008).

Conclusion: The most common method of self-harm is cutting and functional purpose for this behavior is affect regulation. Individual with low resilient coping have higher chances of NSSI behavior and similarly high resilient coping is protective for NSSI behavior.