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Self-incineration: a controlled comparison of in-patient suicide attempts. Clinical features and history of self-harm

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 August 2011

R. Jacobson ,
M. Jackson  and
M. Berelowitz
R. Jacobson*
Affiliation:
Fromthe Institute of Psychiatry, London
M. Jackson
Affiliation:
Fromthe Institute of Psychiatry, London
M. Berelowitz
Affiliation:
Fromthe Institute of Psychiatry, London
*
1Address for correspondence: Dr R. Jacobson, Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, Denmark Hill, London SE5 8AF.
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Synopsis

A systematic survey of in-patient accidents and injuries in an inner London hospital over 9 years established that, after incisions and overdoses, self-incineration was one of the commoner methods of violent self-harm. A case-controlled study of in-patient suicide attempts compared a series of 12 self-incinerators with 12 patients using other methods. Irrespective of method, the suicide attempt was predominantly a psychotic act of young single people with chronic, severe disorders and considerable past parasuicide, in a setting of escalating self-harm. Younger age, greater psychiatric morbidity, absence of alcoholism, a history of childhood arson, past and current self-burning were the features specific to self-incineration, which had a 25% mortality rate.

Type
Research Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 16 , Issue 1 , February 1986 , pp. 107 - 116
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1986

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