Non-suicidal self-injury in adolescents: A diagnostic and psychopathological approach. A case presentation

Abstract

Self-injurious behavior is a major public health problem. An increase in the number of self-injuring adolescents has been observed since the mid-1960s.

Description of clinical case

C. is a 14 teenager who comes to a mental health center for the first time a year ago for having numerous self-injuries in the forearm. She says that she cannot avoid doing so in moments of anxiety and that, in addition, when she is hurt she calms down. Throughout the interviews, C. relates that after the death of her best friend in a traffic accident she is alone and with episodes of anxiety.

Exploration and complementary tests

It is important to analyze the risk factors of self-injurious behaviors in adolescence such as:

– personal characteristic;

– psychiatric disorders;

– family characteristics;

– mass media.

Diagnosis

Depressive episode (F32).

Differential diagnosis

In general, self-injury is considered as a symptom or characteristic of a specific psychiatric disorder. Stereotyped self-injury is characteristic of processes of cognitive deficit of the level of severe and profound mental retardation. Compulsive self-harm involves symptomatic habits such as severe scratching of the skin or already differentiated psychiatric entities, such as trichotillomania, onicofagia or delusional parasitosis… Important psychotic disorder.

Conclusions

Following the Task Force's criteria, in relation to probably effective therapies, it can be concluded that the therapy based on mentation for adolescents (MBT-A) is the first effective treatment for the treatment of self-harm in adolescents.

Disclosure of interest

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.