Group Therapy for Patients Who Self-Harm: Does it Work?

Hello. My name is Dr. Robert Findling. I'm Director of the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at University Hospital at Case Medical Center and Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at Case Western Reserve University. In today's posting, I'll be talking about a treatment study that was conducted in a group of teenagers who were repeatedly self-harm. This study[1] was recently published in the British Medical Journal and the first study author is J. M. Green. As viewers likely know, teenagers who self-harm are often a group that is very difficult to treat. Moreover, it's important to think about these patient populations because self-harm can be quite pernicious and often a recurring phenomenon. Moreover, self-harm is associated with psychosocial difficulties, emotional distress, human suffering, risk for suicide, poor long-term outcomes, and increased service utilization, both in the medical field, the mental health systems, school systems, and even the justice systems.