Self-harm

(asked on 10th September 2014) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what his assessment is of the prevalence of self-harm amongst minors.


Answered by
Norman Lamb Portrait
Norman Lamb
This question was answered on 15th October 2014

Data on the prevalence of self-harm amongst minors is not routinely collected.

The 2004 British Child and Adolescent Mental Health Survey found the rate of self-harm in 5-10 year olds was 0.8% in those with no disorder, rising to 6.2% in those with an anxiety disorder and 7.5% in those with hyperkinetic disorder, conduct disorder or one of the less common disorders.

The prevalence of self-harm increased in adolescence with the rates of 1.2% in those with no disorder, rising to 9.4% in those with an anxiety disorder and 18.8% in those with depression. Rates of hospital admission for self-harm have increased sharply over the last decade.

Data on the number of people aged under 18 requiring hospital treatment for self-harm is available through Hospital Episode Statistics. The most recent data is in the following table.

Count of finished admission episodes with a cause code of self-harm and a count of accident and emergency attendances (excluding planned attendances) with a patient group of deliberate self-harm for (1) females under 18 and (2) males under 18 for 2010-11, 2011-12 and 2012-13.

Activity in English NHS Hospitals and English NHS commissioned activity in the independent sector

Year

Accident and emergency attendances

Finished admission episodes

Male

Female

Male

Female

2010-11

4,038

9,264

2,594

11,400

2011-12

4,287

9,388

2,363

10,868

2012-13

3,800

9,943

2,473

12,305

Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), Health and Social Care Information Centre

Notes:

a) admissions do not represent the number of inpatients as a person may have more than one admission in one year and

b) a patient may have attended Accident and Emergency (A&E) and then been admitted to hospital as a single event, in this case the event would be included in both the A&E and hospital admission figures

c) reference to the footnotes should be made when interpreting the data.

Reticulating Splines