In the United States, efforts to commit self-harm have become more commonplace recently. It was especially alarming that the population of adolescents and young adults saw a rise in the practice of self-harm. Risk factors and drugs used for self-harm must be made clear in order to guide attempts to combat this trend.
The sole tertiary care facility in the state recorded every instance of self-harm poisoning in patients between the ages of 12 and 25 years from January 2019 through March 2022. It was a descriptive retrospective observational research.
Incidence of self-harm poisonings increased for all ages by 69% between 2019 and 2021, and for those aged 12 to 17 it climbed by 90%. Patients aged 14 to 17 made up 50% of all cases, 69% were female, and 22% required an intensive care unit. The top three drugs used most frequently are accessible over-the-counter.
Throughout the study period, there was a steady rise in attempts to harm oneself by poisoning, with the adolescent age group showing particular vulnerability during this time.
Reference: sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0735675722006660
