This site is intended for healthcare professionals

Go to /sign-in page

You can view 5 more pages before signing in

Go to /pro/cpd-dashboard page

This page is worth 0.05 CPD credits. CPD dashboard

Go to /account/subscription-details page

This page is worth 0.05 CPD credits. Upgrade to Pro

Suicide and deliberate self-harm

Last reviewed dd mmm yyyy. Last edited dd mmm yyyy

Authoring team

Drug overdoses or other methods of self-harm are a major cause of adult hospital admission.

The minority of these patients die while most recover.

The deaths are termed suicides.

The action of those who survive has been termed:

  • parasuicide
  • attempted suicide
  • deliberate self-harm (DSH)

The term deliberate self-harm is used here because it makes fewer assumptions about the patient's intentions.

It is important that doctors in hospital and the community should have the knowledge and skills to identify the small proportion of DSH patients who will go on to commit suicide.


Related pages

Create an account to add page annotations

Annotations allow you to add information to this page that would be handy to have on hand during a consultation. E.g. a website or number. This information will always show when you visit this page.