Increased Mortality from All Causes in Patients with Self-Harm

People who harm themselves are at elevated risk for death from external causes such as suicides and accidents. But what about death from natural causes?

As part of the Multicentre Study of Self-harm in England, researchers examined all-cause mortality risk and socioeconomic and health factors in 30,950 individuals aged 15 or older who presented to any of six emergency departments (EDs) in 2000–2007 for nonfatal self-injury or self-poisoning. Typically, psychosocial and health data were obtained during psychosocial assessments by psychiatric clinicians; socioeconomic status was determined by a postal-code–based index; mortality data came from government registries.

During follow-up (range, 2–10 years; median, 6 years), 6.1% of the patients die…