The Lancet Commission on Self-Harm

By delivering transformative shifts in societal attitudes and initiating a radical redesign of mental health care, we can fundamentally improve the lives of people who self-harm.

This Lancet Commission is the product of a substantial team effort that has taken place over the last five years. It consolidates evidence and knowledge derived from empirical research and the lived experience of self-harm. Self-harm refers to intentional self-poisoning or injury, irrespective of apparent purpose, and can take many forms, including overdoses of medication, ingestion of harmful substances, cutting, burning, or punching. The focus of this Commission is on non-fatal self-harm—however, in some settings, distinctions are not this clear cut. Self-harm is a behaviour, not a psychiatric diagnosis, with a wide variety of underlying causes and contributing factors. It is shaped by culture and society, yet its definitions have arisen from research conducted mainly in high-income countries. The field has often overlooked the perspectives of people living in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) and Indigenous peoples. Furthermore, unlike suicide prevention, self-harm has been neglected by governments internationally. For these reasons, we set out to integrate missing perspectives about self-harm from across the world alongside existing mainstream scientific knowledge, with the aim of raising the profile of self-harm in the global policy arena and improving the treatment of people who self-harm internationally.

There are at least 14 million episodes of self-harm annually across the world, representing a global rate of 60 per 100 000 people per year. This estimate is likely to be a considerable underestimate, because most people who self-harm do not present to clinical services and there are few routine surveillance systems, particularly in LMICs. Although self-harm can occur at any age, the incidence is much higher among young people and within this population, rates appear to be increasing. Repetition of self-harm is common, and suicide is much more common after self-harm than in the general population; 1·6% of people die by suicide within a year after presentation to hospital with an episode of self-harm. In LMICs, rates of repetition appear to be lower because pesticide self-poisoning (the most common method of self-harm in LMICs) has a high case fatality rate.

For people who self-harm, the behaviour serves a variety of functions, including self-soothing, emotional management, communication, validation of identity, and self-expression. Self-harm practices are also shaped by social relationships and class dynamics. Indigenous peoples across the world, especially Indigenous youth, have high rates of self-harm, with colonisation and racism playing potentially important roles in driving the behaviour. Numerous psychological and social factors are associated with self-harm and the social determinants of health—poverty, in particular, heavily influences the distribution of self-harm within all communities. Yet we know little about how individual-level factors interact with social context to drive self-harm, or whether an individual might be more likely to engage in self-harm at a particular point in time. Furthermore, many of the biopsychosocial mechanisms underlying self-harm remain elusive. Granular data capture through Ecological Momentary Assessment, together with machine learning and triangulation of data sources, including qualitative data, could help to shed light on the nature and timing of self-harm.

Psychological treatments can help some people who self-harm, but service users and practitioners often differ in their opinions of what constitutes effective treatment. Furthermore, treatment provision for self-harm remains highly variable and is often inaccessible, particularly within LMICs and to Indigenous peoples. Unfortunately, in many settings, there is a lack of a caring, empathic response towards people who self-harm, and those living in countries where self-harm with suicidal intent is deemed a criminal offence can find themselves liable to prosecution. Even in some liberal democracies, the police are sometimes used as a first line of response to people who self-harm, compounding feelings of stigma.

We have identified 12 key recommendations that, if actioned, could transform the lives of people who self-harm (panel 1).