Self-harm in Eating Disorders: How prevalent?

What is it about?

Self-injury without suicidal intent has long been associated with Eating Disorders. The heterogeneity of published findings, and the absence of systematic attempts to combine them in a quantitative summary format have previously made it difficult to establish the true extent of the problem and factors that relate to it. This is the first meta-analysis of research findings on non-suicidal self-injury in Eating Disorders. We found that approximately 1 in 3 of individuals with a diagnosis of Bulimia Nervosa and 1 in 5 of those diagnosed with Anorexia Nervosa have engaged in intentional self-inflicted injury without suicidal intent sometime in their life. We further found that the odds of non-suicidal self-injury in Eating Disorders increase when history of suicide attempt is present and decrease when history of substance abuse is present.

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Why is it important?

Our findings confirm that non-suicidal self-injury is highly prevalent among individuals with Eating Disorders and correlates positively with attempted suicide, urging for treatments focused on non-suicidal self-injury. The finding that non-suicidal self-injury is potentially antagonized by substance abuse in the context of Eating Disorders is novel and paves the way for new research.