‘I’ve overdosed again’ – managing recurrent self-harm

Case

A 38 year old female comes to see her GP in clinic as an emergency appointment. She has a known history of emotionally unstable personality disorder and has recently been self-harming more. She is very tearful when she walks in the room. She immediately breaks down and admits to taking 25 paracetamol tablets.

She has taken multiple overdoses in the past and known to self-harm using a razor blade to the forearm when stressed. On examination, her GCS is 15. ECG shows normal sinus rhythm.

The GP calls 999 and informs the A&E team of the incoming patient.

The problem

Population estimates of the prevalence of self-harm in the community vary considerably.

Much of the detailed epidemiological study of self-harm has been based in hospital settings and suggests self-harm might account for over 200,000 hospital attendances in England every year.¹

The demographic with the highest suicide rate (of 23.9 per 100,000 population) was reported to be for men aged 45–59 in 2014.²

Self-harm (intentional self-poisoning or self-injury) is often repeated and strongly associated with suicide.³ Self-harm (unlike suicide) occurs more commonly in females and predominantly in those under 35.⁴ It is often associated with substantial morbidity and healthcare costs.⁵

Between 15 and 25% of individuals who present to hospital with self-harm repeat this within a year, and 1 to 3% die by suicide in the same period.⁶ A history of self-harm is the strongest risk factor for suicide across a range of psychiatric disorders and repetition of self-harm further increases this risk.⁷

Features

Self-harm refers to an intentional act of self-poisoning or self-injury, irrespective of the motivation or apparent purpose of the act.⁸ It includes acts intended to result in death (attempted suicide), those without suicidal intent (e.g. to communicate distress, to reduce unpleasant feelings) and those with mixed motivation.

Self-harm methods can be divided into two categories: self-injury and self-poisoning. There are many ways of self-harming, some of which are accepted in some cultures, for example, smoking, excessive alcohol, or over-eating. Other methods may include pinching, head banging, tattoo removal, scratching, punching, sticking things in to the body and swallowing things. Complications of self-harm can also be a presenting feature. For example, deep scars can damage tendons and blood vessels. In addition, patients may also present with scars and infected open wounds.

Reasons for self-harm: ^9,10

• Mental health disorders, including personality disorders, anxiety and depression.
• Social and family difficulties such as difficulties at home, arguments or problems with friends, school pressures, bullying, transitions and changes, such as changing schools, relationship problems with partners and family, being unemployed, or having difficulties at work.
• Psychological difficulties such as low self-esteem, physical or sexual abuse, feeling bad about themselves, feeling that people don’t listen to them, feeling hopeless, isolated, alone, out of control and powerless.
• Alcohol and drug use.

Assessment

Raising the importance of an assessment in general practice is vital because studies show that 45% of suicide victims had contact with primary care providers within one month of suicide.¹¹

NICE recommended that none of the simple risk measurement tools or checklists should be used in isolation to determine treatment decisions (because of their poor predictive ability), and a comprehensive clinical interview should be the main basis of assessment.¹²

Management in primary care¹⁴

Referral to A&E:

GPs should refer patients for urgent treatment in an emergency department if assessment suggests there is a significant risk to the individual who has self-injured. Should there be a need, attempt to have a further discussion with the emergency consultant.

Consideration should be given to the patient’s welfare during transportation to any referral organisation and, if necessary, this should be supervised by an appropriate person where there is a risk of further self-harm, reluctance to attend other care centers, or if the patient is very distressed.

In remote areas at considerable distance from an emergency department or where access is likely to be delayed, consideration should be given to initiating assessment and treatment of self-harm in the primary care setting, following discussion with the nearest emergency department consultant. This should include taking samples to test for paracetamol and other drugs, as indicated in TOXBASE. The most common substances reported to the National Poisons Information service (NPIS) London center in 2002 were related to paracetamol, other analgesics and antidepressants.

Communication with mental health team:

Outcome of the risk and needs assessment and treatment, should be forwarded to the appropriate secondary mental health team at the earliest opportunity. Consideration should be given to referring to secondary crisis team services and it may also be helpful to provide out of hours helpful numbers in addition, such as Focusline and Samaritans.

Partnership:

If a person who self-harms is receiving treatment or care in primary care as well as secondary care, primary and secondary health and social care professionals should ensure they work cooperatively.

Preventing self-poisoning:

Healthcare professionals should prescribe, whenever possible, those drugs which are least dangerous in overdose while still effective for their intended use, and should consider prescribing fewer tablets at any one time. The same consideration also needs to be given to the prescription of the relatives who live with a person. Care must be taken, however, to preserve confidentiality.

Dr Madhvi Belgamwar is a consultant community psychiatrist at Royal Derby Hospital.

Dr Rolla Ibrahim is a GP trainee based at Royal Derby Hospital.

References:

1. Hawton, K., Bergen, H., Cassey, D., et al. (2007) Self-harm in England: a tale of three cities: multicenter study of self-harm. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 42, 513–521.
2. Mental Health Foundation. (2016). Fundamental Facts About Mental Health. 2016. Mental Health Foundation: London.
3. Hawton et al, BJPsych advances Sep2016, 22 (5) 286.
4. Townsend E (2014) Self-harm in young people. Evidence-Based Mental Health, 17: 97–9.
5. Sinclair J M et al. (2011) Healthcare and social services resource use and costs of self-harm patients. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric epidemiology, 46: 263–71
6. Carroll R et al (2014) Hospital presenting self-harm and risk of fatal and non-fatal repetition: systematic review and meta-analysis. PLoS One, 9: e89944.
7. Zahl DL et al, (2004) Repetition of deliberate self-harm and subsequent suicide risk: long-term follow-up study of 11583 patients. British Journal of Psychiatry, 185: 70–5.
8. National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health (2004) Self-Harm: The Short-Term Physical and Psychological Management and Secondary Prevention of Self-Harm in Primary and Secondary Care (Clinical Guideline 16). NICE.
9. http://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/healthadvice/problemsdisorders/self-harm.aspx
10. https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/publications/truth-about-self-harm
11. Luoma, JB, Matin, CE, Pearson, JL. ‘Contact with mental health and primary care providers before suicide: a review of the evidence.’ Am J Psychiatry 2002 Jun; 159(6):909-16.
12. National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence. Self-harm: longer-term management. (Clinical guideline CG133). 2012
13. ‘Direct link’ between self-harming and the internet. BBC News. 2015. http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-31878391
14. https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/conditions-and-diseases/mental-health-and-behavioural-conditions/self-harm