Self-embedding is the insertion of foreign objects either into soft tissues under the skin or into muscle. [1] Self-embedding is typically considered deliberate self-harm, also known as nonsuicidal self-injury, which is defined as "deliberate, direct destruction of tissues without suicidal intent." [2]
Based on the review of the literature it is unclear whether self-embedding falls under the definition of deliberate self-harm. Some studies include self-embedding as a deliberate self-harm behavior [2] while others exclude it. [3] Most definitions of deliberate self-harm include the stipulation that the behavior is performed without conscious suicidal intent. [2] [4] The connection between self-embedding and suicidal ideation is unclear. Although most self-injurious behaviors are not associated with suicidal intentions, self-embedding has been found to be associated with suicidal ideation. [1] A study found that suicidal ideation is the most commonly reported reason for self-embedding, however not all acts of self-embedding are accompanied with suicidal ideations. [1] Additionally, most people that partake in self-embedding behavior report having previous suicidal attempts and suicidal ideations. [5] Other distinctions between self-embedding and other self-injurious behaviors are that self-embedding is highly comorbid with behavioral health diagnoses and has a high prevalence of repetitive behavior. [5] Self-embedding is similar to other forms of self-injury in that one of the purposes of engaging in the behavior is to relieve emotional distress by inflicting physical pain. [5]
One of the first reported cases of self-embedding was in 1936 when Albert Fish, a serial killer and cannibal, was caught and executed. [6] An X-ray of his pelvis revealed about 27–29 needles inserted into his groin; the image was used as evidence at his trial. [7] He also embedded needles into his abdomen. [7] In 1986 Gould and Pyle described self-embedding behavior in their book Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine. [1] They included reports of adult European women with hysteria who self-embedded by inserting needles into their body. [1] In 2010 a study by Young et al. was one of the first to describe self-embedding in an adolescent population. [5]
The majority of people who engage in self-embedding are white teenage females with psychiatric diagnoses. [1] Self-embedding has a high comorbidity [1] with other psychological disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder, dissociative disorder, and borderline personality disorder. [5] Additionally, deliberate self-harm is associated with externalizing pathology such as oppositional defiant disorder and conduct disorder. [2] Adolescents who self-injure have higher mean depression scores and report more depressive symptoms than adolescents who do not self-injure. [8] They also report more symptoms of anxiety. [9] Life stressors such as sexual abuse, witnessing family violence or experiencing a traumatic event have also been found to be associated with deliberate self-harm. [2] The frequency and the presence of deliberate self-harm are correlated with the number of stressful life events adolescents report. Adolescents with a history of deliberate self-harm report more stressful life events and those with higher rates for these experiences were more likely to repetitively engage in the behavior. [2] Empirical studies have identified risk factors and correlates for self-injurious behavior. [10] Some of these factors include a history of childhood abuse, the presence of a mental disorder, poor verbal skills, and identifying with Goth subculture. [10]
The mean age for nonsuicidal self-injury is 13–15 years and for suicidal self-injury is 15–17 years of age. [1] About 2% of inmates each year engage in self-injurious behavior, which includes the insertion of foreign objects into the body. [11] The lifetime prevalence rates of deliberate self-harm in adolescence ranges from 13%–56% in non-clinical community samples. [2] Approximately 4% of the United States population and 13–23% of adolescents report a history of nonsuicidal self-injury. [5] The most commonly used objects for insertion are long and thin such as sewing needles and paperclips. [11] Also urethral insertion of foreign objects is more common in males than females with a 1.7:1 ratio. [11]
In order to assess self-embedding different aspects of the behavior must be examined such as the type of object used, the site of insertion, the number of objects inserted, the motivation behind the behavior and if the patient has other psychiatric diagnoses. [11] The most common symptoms for epithelial insertion of foreign objects are infection, abscess formation, or sepsis at the site of insertion. [11] Symptoms of urethral insertion include frequent urination, painful urination, and blood in urination. [11] Urethral stricture can occur with multiple attempts to insert an object into the urethra. [12] Mucosal tears are associated with multiple objects being inserted or with multiple attempts as well. [12] In order to assess the size, location and number of foreign objects a radiological evaluation is needed. [12] Symptoms for vaginal insertion are vaginal pain, discharge, bleeding, and foul odor, which can indicate infection. [11]
To treat urethral insertion of foreign objects endoscopic retrieval is utilized and an antibiotic is given. [12] If there is an infection or abscess formation at the site of insertion, surgical removal of the object is necessary. [13] If a patient has multiple objects inserted in a certain area surgical removal is recommended unless the risks of surgery outweigh the benefits. [13] Percutaneous image guided foreign body removal (IGFBR) is another less invasive option for removing foreign bodies that leaves minimal scarring. [5] Multiple studies have found IGFBR as a safe and effective technique for the removal of foreign bodies. [14] [15] In this procedure hydrodissection can be used to define the foreign body more precisely and facilitate its removal. [16]
Problem-Solving Therapy and Dialectical Behavior Therapy are two empirically supported Cognitive Behavioral Therapies for non-suicidal self-injurious behavior. [8] Problem-Solving Therapy (PST) teaches clients problem-solving skills and general coping strategies so that they can more effectively deal with future problems. [8] Additionally, clients learn to identify and resolve the problems they encounter. [8] The findings for the effectiveness of PST in reducing non-suicidal self-injury have been mixed. Some studies have found that PST has reduced suicidal behaviors compared to usual treatments however maintenance beyond one year was not found. [8]
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) aims to teach clients general coping skills and address any motivational obstacles to treatment. [8] Therapy includes validating the client's experience and working with the client on problem-solving skills and behavioral skills such as emotional regulation. [8] DBT has been used to treat both suicidal behaviors and non-suicidal self-injurious behaviors. DBT has been shown to reduce self-injurious behaviors in multiple studies. [8]
According to this model, the maintenance of deliberate self-harm behavior is due to negative reinforcement. [4] Deliberate self-harm is reinforced because it prevents or takes away negative emotional experiences. [4] The experiential avoidance model was developed to account for deliberate self-harm for various populations not just ones with psychopathology. [4] Experiential avoidance behaviors are those that “function to avoid or escape from unwanted internal experiences." [4] The mechanism for this model involves an individual experiencing an event that evokes an aversive emotional response, which causes the individual to want to escape from that unpleasant emotional state. [4] The individual engages in deliberate self-harm, which reduces or gets rid of the aversive emotional response. This behavior is then negatively enforced. [4] Many studies have found that 80–94% of people report feeling better after engaging in deliberate self-harm, with relief being the most reported. [17] Furthermore, studies done on the self-reported reasons for deliberate self-harm have found that the primary reasons given for engaging in the behavior are related to avoiding, eliminating or escaping internal experiences. [18] [19] A study conducted on female college students investigated emotional responses of women with and without deliberate self-harm and found that women who engage in self-harm reported higher levels of experiential avoidance. [4] Factors that may underlie an increase in experiential avoidance are higher levels of impulsivity or novelty seeking and heightened levels of aversive physiological arousal to emotional events. [4] Other factors include a low tolerance for emotional distress and a failure to use different, less maladaptive behaviors in response to emotional arousal. [4]
The EAM provides multiple hypotheses for how deliberate self-harm provides an emotional escape. The opioid hypothesis explains that deliberate self-harm elicits endogenous opioids, which leads to analgesia and relief of emotional distress. [4] Studies have found elevated levels of opioid peptides in people who engage in deliberate self-harm [20] however, there is not much research supporting an increase in opioid levels after deliberate self-harm. [4] Another explanation could be that individuals who engage in deliberate self-harm have increased activity of the opiate system which can lead to a feeling of dissociation and numbness [21] and deliberate self-harm provides physical pain that ends this dissociative state. [22] An alternative explanation for why deliberate self-harm provides relief is that it shifts attention away from the unpleasant emotions being experienced. [4] Empirical evidence for this hypothesis is mixed; some studies have found distraction to be one of the most common self-reported reasons for engaging in deliberate self-harm [18] while others have found the contrary. [23] The self-punishment hypothesis claims that deliberate self-harm can decrease emotional arousal by confirming an individual's negative self-concepts such as that they are bad or have done something wrong. [4] Multiple studies have found that self-punishment is commonly reported as a reason for engaging in deliberate self-harm. [23] [24] Self-punishment is reinforced because it “alleviates distress associated with negative thoughts about oneself" and has the potential to lessen external punishment. [4]
Based on his review on the literature on self-injury, Matthew Nock, developed a theoretical model on the development and maintenance of self-injury. According to Nock's model self-injury is performed repeatedly because it is an immediate effective way of influencing one's social environment and regulating one's emotional and cognitive experience. [10] Additionally, factors that contribute to problems in regulating one's affective and cognitive state and influencing one's social environment such as poor social skills lead to an increased risk of self-injury. [10] These general risk factors also increase the likelihood of engaging in other maladaptive behaviors such as alcohol or substance abuse. [10]
This model follows a functional perspective in which behaviors are caused by the events that immediately precede and follow them. [10] Four types of reinforcement processes can maintain self-injury: intrapersonal negative reinforcement, intrapersonal positive reinforcement, interpersonal positive reinforcement, and interpersonal negative reinforcement. Intrapersonal negative reinforcement refers to self-injury being followed by a decrease or stop of aversive thoughts or feelings. [10] Intrapersonal positive reinforcement involves self-injury being followed by an increase in desired thoughts or feelings such as a feeling of satisfaction. [10] Interpersonal positive reinforcement occurs when self-injury is followed by a desired social event such as attention or support. [10] Finally, interpersonal negative reinforcement occurs when self-injury is followed by a decrease or stop of a social event. [10] Many studies investigating the motives reported for engaging in self-injury provide evidence for this four-function model. [23] [25]
Borderline personality disorder (BPD), also known as emotionally unstable personality disorder (EUPD), is a personality disorder characterized by a long-term pattern of intense and unstable interpersonal relationships, distorted sense of self, and strong emotional reactions. Those affected often engage in self-harm and other dangerous behaviors, often due to their difficulty with returning their emotional level to a healthy or normal baseline. They may also struggle with a feeling of emptiness, fear of abandonment, and dissociation.
Self-harm is intentional behavior that is considered harmful to oneself. This is most commonly regarded as direct injury of one's own skin tissues usually without a suicidal intention. Other terms such as cutting, self-injury, and self-mutilation have been used for any self-harming behavior regardless of suicidal intent. Common forms of self-harm include damaging the skin with a sharp object or by scratching, hitting, or burning. The exact bounds of self-harm are imprecise, but generally exclude tissue damage that occurs as an unintended side-effect of eating disorders or substance abuse, as well as societally acceptable body modification such as tattoos and piercings.
Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) is an evidence-based psychotherapy that began with efforts to treat personality disorders and interpersonal conflicts. Evidence suggests that DBT can be useful in treating mood disorders and suicidal ideation as well as for changing behavioral patterns such as self-harm and substance use. DBT evolved into a process in which the therapist and client work with acceptance and change-oriented strategies and ultimately balance and synthesize them—comparable to the philosophical dialectical process of thesis and antithesis, followed by synthesis.
Self-hatred is personal self-loathing or hatred of oneself, or low self-esteem which may lead to self-harm.
Suicide prevention is a collection of efforts to reduce the risk of suicide. Suicide is often preventable, and the efforts to prevent it may occur at the individual, relationship, community, and society level. Suicide is a serious public health problem that can have long-lasting effects on individuals, families, and communities. Preventing suicide requires strategies at all levels of society. This includes prevention and protective strategies for individuals, families, and communities. Suicide can be prevented by learning the warning signs, promoting prevention and resilience, and committing to social change.
Excoriation disorder, more commonly known as dermatillomania, is a mental disorder on the obsessive–compulsive spectrum that is characterized by the repeated urge or impulse to pick at one's own skin, to the extent that either psychological or physical damage is caused.
Relational aggression, alternative aggression, or relational bullying is a type of aggression in which harm is caused by damaging someone's relationships or social status.
Irritability is the excitatory ability that living organisms have to respond to changes in their environment. The term is used for both the physiological reaction to stimuli and for the pathological, abnormal or excessive sensitivity to stimuli.
Suicidal ideation, or suicidal thoughts, is the thought process of having ideas, or ruminations about the possibility of ending one's own life. It is not a diagnosis but is a symptom of some mental disorders, use of certain psychoactive drugs, and can also occur in response to adverse life events without the presence of a mental disorder.
Emotion dysregulation is a range of emotional responses that do not lie within a desirable scope of emotive response, considering the stimuli.
Autophagia refers to the practice of biting/consuming one's body. It is a sub category of self-injurious behavior (SIB). Commonly, it manifests in humans as nail biting and hair pulling. In rarer circumstances, it manifests as serious self mutilative behavior such as biting of one's fingers. Autophagia affects both humans and non humans. Human autophagia typically occurs in parts of the body that are sensitive to pain, such as fingers. Human autophagia is not motivated by suicidal intent, but may be related to the desire to seek pain.
Self-destructive behavior is any behavior that is harmful or potentially harmful towards the person who engages in the behavior.
Armando Favazza is an American author and psychiatrist best known for his studies of cultural psychiatry, deliberate self-harm, and religion. Favazza's Bodies Under Siege: Self-mutilation in Culture and Psychiatry (1987) was an early psychiatric book on this topic. His 2004 work, PsychoBible: Behavior, Religion, and the Holy Book presents objective data regarding commonly held misconceptions about the Bible as a whole as well as its major passages. In Kaplan and Sadock's Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry he has written the chapter on "Anthropology and Psychiatry" in the 3rd edition (1980), the 4th edition (1985) and the 8th edition (2005), as well as the chapter on "Spirituality and Psychiatry" in the 9th edition (2009). He has published two cover articles in the American Journal of Psychiatry: "Foundations of Cultural Psychiatry" [135:293-303,1978] and "Modern Christian Healing of Mental Illness" [139:728-735,1982]. In 1979 he co-founded The Society for the Study of Culture and Psychiatry.
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders, physical disorders, and substance abuse are risk factors. Some suicides are impulsive acts due to stress, relationship problems, or harassment and bullying. Those who have previously attempted suicide are at a higher risk for future attempts. Effective suicide prevention efforts include limiting access to methods of suicide such as firearms, drugs, and poisons; treating mental disorders and substance abuse; careful media reporting about suicide; and improving economic conditions. Although crisis hotlines are common resources, their effectiveness has not been well studied.
A suicide attempt is an act in which an individual tries to die by suicide but survives. While it may be described as a "failed" or "unsuccessful" suicide attempt, mental health professionals discourage the use of these terms as they imply that a suicide resulting in death is a successful or desirable outcome.
The Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale, or C-SSRS, is a suicidal ideation and behavior rating scale created by researchers at Columbia University, University of Pennsylvania, University of Pittsburgh and New York University to evaluate suicide risk. It rates an individual's degree of suicidal ideation on a scale, ranging from "wish to be dead" to "active suicidal ideation with specific plan and intent and behaviors." Questions are phrased for use in an interview format, but the C-SSRS may be completed as a self-report measure if necessary. The scale identifies specific behaviors which may be indicative of an individual's intent to kill oneself. An individual exhibiting even a single behavior identified by the scale was 8 to 10 times more likely to die by suicide.
Historically, suicide terminology has been rife with issues of nomenclature, connotation, and outcomes, and terminology describing suicide has often been defined differently depending on the purpose of the definition. A lack of agreed-upon nomenclature and operational definitions has complicated understanding. In 2007, attempts were made to reach some consensus. There is also opposition to the phrase "to commit suicide" as implying negative moral judgment and association with criminal or sinful activity.
The Suicide Behaviors Questionnaire-Revised (SBQ-R) is a psychological self-report questionnaire designed to identify risk factors for suicide in children and adolescents between ages 13 and 18. The four-question test is filled out by the child and takes approximately five minutes to complete. The questionnaire has been found to be reliable and valid in recent studies. One study demonstrated that the SBQ-R had high internal consistency with a sample of university students. However, another body of research, which evaluated some of the most commonly used tools for assessing suicidal thoughts and behaviors in college-aged students, found that the SBQ-R and suicide assessment tools in general have very little overlap between them. One of the greatest strengths of the SBQ-R is that, unlike some other tools commonly used for suicidality assessment, it asks about future anticipation of suicidal thoughts or behaviors as well as past and present ones and includes a question about lifetime suicidal ideation, plans to commit suicide, and actual attempts.
Theodore P. Beauchaine is an American psychologist and William K. Warren Foundation Professor of Psychology at the University of Notre Dame. His research focuses on neural bases of behavioral impulsivity, emotion dysregulation, and self-injurious behavior, and how these neural vulnerabilities interact with environmental risk factors across development for both boys and girls. He is among the first psychologists to specify how impulsivity, expressed early in life as ADHD, follows different developmental trajectories across the lifespan for boys vs. girls who are exposed to adversity. In contexts of maltreatment, deviant peer affiliations, and other environment risk factors, boys with ADHD are more likely to develop conduct problems, substance use disorders, and antisocial traits, whereas girls with ADHD are more likely to engage in self-injurious behavior and develop borderline traits. In protective environments, these outcomes are far less likely. Beauchaine has received two awards from the American Psychological Association: the Distinguished Scientific Award for an Early Career Contribution to Psychology and the Mid-Career Award for Outstanding Contributions to Benefit Children, Youth, and Families.
A self-inflicted wound (SIW) or self-inflicted injury (SII) is a physical injury done to oneself. This may occur in contexts including: