Nonsuicidal Self Injury

Nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) is a baffling, troubling, and hard to treat phenomenon that has increased markedly in recent years. Key issues in diagnosing and treating NSSI adequately include differentiating it from attempted suicide and other mental disorders, as well as understanding the motivations for self-injury and the context in which it occurs. This accessible and practical book provides therapists and students with a clear understanding of these key issues, as well as of suitable assessment techniques. It then goes on to delineate research-informed treatment approaches for NSSI, with an emphasis on functional assessment, emotion regulation, and problem solving, including motivational interviewing, interpersonal skills, CBT, DBT, behavioral management strategies, delay behaviors, exercise, family therapy, risk management, and medication, as well as how to successfully combine methods.

Nonsuicidal Self-Injury moves beyond the basics to tackle the clinical and conceptual complexity of NSSI, with an emphasis on recent advances in both science and practice. Directed towards clinicians, researchers, and others wishing to advance their understanding of NSSI, this volume reviews and synthesizes recent empirical findings that clarify NSSI as a theoretical and clinical condition, as well as the latest efforts to assess, treat, and prevent NSSI. With expertly written chapters by leaders in the field, this is an essential guide to a disorder about which much is still to be known.

Suicide is a perplexing human behavior that remains among the leading causes of death worldwide, responsible for more deaths each year than all wars, genocide, and homicide combined. Although suicide and other forms of self-injury have baffled scholars and clinicians for thousands of years, the past few decades have brought significant leaps in our understanding of these behaviors. This volume provides a comprehensive summary of the most important and exciting advances in our understanding of suicide and self-injury and our ability to predict and prevent it. Comprised of a formidable who's who in the field, the handbook covers the full spectrum of topics in suicide and self-injury across the lifespan, including the classification of different self-injurious behaviors, epidemiology, assessment techniques, and intervention. Chapters probe relevant issues in our society surrounding suicide, including assisted suicide and euthanasia, suicide terrorism, overlap between suicidal behavior and interpersonal violence, ethical considerations for suicide researchers, and current knowledge on survivors of suicide. The most comprehensive handbook on suicide and self-injury to date, this volume is a must-read text for graduate students, fellows, academic and research psychologists, and other researchers working in the brain and behavioral sciences.

"Parents who discover a teen's self-injurious behavior are gripped by uncertainty and flooded with questions - Why is my child doing this? Is this a suicide attempt? What did I do wrong? What can I do to stop it? And yet basic educational resources for parents with self-injuring children are sorely lacking. Healing after Self-Injury provides desperately-needed guidance to parents and others who love a young person struggling with self-injury"--

Non-suicidal self-injury and eating disorders represent significant problems among today’s youth and pose unique challenges for clinicians, particularly when they co-occur. This book is a rare resource in that it provides cutting-edge information on the interactions between self-injury and disordered eating, empirically informed treatments for the co-occurrence of these behaviors, and specific topics relevant to understanding nuances in the risk factors, treatment, and prevention of both self-injury and eating disorders. Practitioners, graduate students, and researchers working within this specialized area will find this text to be instrumental in advancing their knowledge and improving the treatment of self-injury in those with eating disorders.

Grounded in a wellness, strengths-based, and developmental perspective, Non-Suicidal Self-Injury is the ideal guide for counselors and other clinicians seeking to understand self-injurious behaviors without pathologizing them. The book covers topics not previously discussed in other works, including working with families, supervising counselors working with clients who self-injure, DSM-5 criteria regarding the NSSI diagnosis, NSSI as a protective factor for preventing suicidal behavior, and advocacy efforts around NSSI. In each chapter clinicians will also find concrete tools, including questions to ask, psychoeducational handouts for clients and their families, treatment handouts or treatment plans for counselors, and more. Non-Suicidal Self-Injury also includes real-life voices of individuals who self-injure as well as case vignettes to provide examples of how theoretical models or treatments discussed in this book immediately apply to practice.

This edited volume features evidence-based reviews and practical approaches for the professional in the hospital, clinic, community and school, with case examples throughout. Divided into five major sections, the book offers background historical and cultural information, discussion of self-injury etiology, assessment and intervention/prevention issues, and relevant resources for those working with youths who self-injure.

Throughout history, people have invented many different ways to inflict direct and deliberate physical injury on themselves -- without an intent to die. Even today, the concept and practice of self-injury is sanctioned by some cultures, although condemned by most. This insightful work fills a gap in the literature on pathologic self-injury. The phenomenon of people physically hurting themselves is heterogeneous in nature, disturbing in its impact on the self and others, frightening in its blatant maladaptiveness, and often indicative of serious developmental disturbances, breaks with reality, or deficits in the regulation of affects, aggressive impulses, or self states. Further complicating our understanding is the large and diverse scope of psychiatric conditions, such as pervasive developmental disorders, Tourette's syndrome, and psychosis, in which these behaviors occur. This volume presents a comprehensive nosology of self-injurious behaviors, classifying them as stereotypic, major, compulsive, and impulsive (with greater emphasis on the last two categories because they are the most commonly seen). The chapter on stereotypic self-injurious behaviors (highly repetitive, monotonous behaviors usually devoid of meaning, such as head-banging) focuses on the neurochemical systems underlying the various forms of stereotypic movement disorders with self-injurious behaviors, typically seen in patients with mental retardation and autism, and discusses their psychopharmacological management. The chapter on psychotic, or major, self-injurious behaviors (severe, life-threatening behaviors, such as castration) presents a multidimensional approach to evaluating and treating patients with psychosis and self-injurious behaviors, including the neuroanatomy and neurobiology of sensory information processing as background for its discussion of neurobiological studies and psychopharmacological treatments. Chapters on the neurobiology of and psychopharmacology and psychotherapies for compulsive self-injurious behaviors (repetitive, ritualistic behaviors, such as trichotillomania [hair-pulling]) offer much-needed biological research and the first empirical treatment studies on compulsive self-injurious behaviors, and argue that a distinction can indeed be made between compulsive and impulsive self-injurious behaviors. Chapters on the neurobiology, psychopharmacology, and dialectic behavior and psychodynamic theory and treatment of impulsive self-injurious behaviors (habitual, chronic behaviors, such as skin picking) supplement the few neurobiological studies measuring impulsivity, aggression, dissociation, and suicide and detail the efficacy of various medications and psychotherapies. An eminently practical guide with exhaustive references to the latest data and research findings, this concise volume contains clinical material and therapeutic interventions that can be used right away by clinicians to better understand and treat patients with these complex and disturbing behaviors.

Assessment and Treatment of Non-Suicidal Self-Injury: A Clinical Perspectiveis the ideal primer for anyone who works with people who self-injure. Profiling who is affected as well as what their behaviour includes, the book explores the range of factors behind why people self-injure, from the influence of social media to the need for self-regulation, and offers recommendations for both assessment and outpatient treatment. Throughout, the book is permeated by profound respect for those who use self-injury in an attempt to live a good life, while conveying a deep understanding of the challenges that self-injury presents for family members and treatment professionals. It recognizes that the behaviour can spread in hospital wards or other institutional setting, introducing the concept of self-injury by proxy, and assesses the range of therapies available, including CBT, MBT, ERGT and family therapy. Each chapter is complemented by clinical vignettes. In an era when a great number of professionals will come into contact with someone who self-injures - including teachers, social workers, nurses as well as therapists - The Assessment and Treatment of Non-Suicidal Self-Injury is an invaluable resource that examines both the causes and treatments available. ignettes. In an era when a great number of professionals will come into contact with someone who self-injures - including teachers, social workers, nurses as well as therapists - The Assessment and Treatment of Non-Suicidal Self-Injury is an invaluable resource that examines both the causes and treatments available.

Research has shown that a range of adult psychiatric disorders and mental health problems originate at an early age, yet the psychiatric symptoms of an increasing number of children and adolescents are going unrecognized and untreated—there are simply not enough child psychiatric providers to meet this steadily rising demand. It is vital that advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) and primary care practitioners take active roles in assessing behavioral health presentations and work collaboratively with families and other healthcare professionals to ensure that all children and adolescents receive appropriate treatment. Child and Adolescent Behavioral Health helps APRNs address the mental health needs of this vulnerable population, providing practical guidance on assessment guidelines, intervention and treatment strategies, indications for consultation, collaboration, referral, and more. Now in its second edition, this comprehensive and timely resource has been fully updated to include DSM-5 criteria and the latest guidance on assessing, diagnosing, and treating the most common behavioral health issues facing young people. New and expanded chapters cover topics including eating disorders, bullying and victimization, LGBTQ identity issues, and conducting research with high-risk children and adolescents. Edited and written by a team of accomplished child psychiatric and primary care practitioners, this authoritative volume: Provides state-of-the-art knowledge about specific psychiatric and behavioral health issues in multiple care settings Reviews the clinical manifestation and etiology of behavioral disorders, risk and management issues, and implications for practice, research, and education Offers approaches for interviewing children and adolescents, and strategies for integrating physical and psychiatric screening Discusses special topics such as legal and ethical issues, cultural influences, the needs of immigrant children, and child and adolescent mental health policy Features a new companion website containing clinical case studies to apply concepts from the chapters Designed to specifically address the issues faced by APRNs, Child and Adolescent Behavioral Health is essential reading for nurse practitioners and clinical nurse specialists, particularly those working in family, pediatric, community health, psychiatric, and mental health settings. *Second Place in the Child Health Category, 2021 American Journal of Nursing Book of the Year Awards*