The reasons dissociative disorder patients self-injure.

BACKGROUND

Most individuals with dissociative disorders (DDs) report engaging in self-injury.

OBJECTIVE

The present study aimed to understand the reasons for self-injury among a clinical sample of 156 DD patients enrolled in the TOP DD Network study.

METHOD: Participants answered questions about self-injury, including a prompt asking how often they are aware of the reasons they have urges to self-injure, as well as a prompt asking them to list three reasons they self-injure.

RESULTS

Six themes of reasons for self-injury, each with subthemes, were identified in the qualitative data: (1) Trauma-related Cues, (2) Emotion Dysregulation, (3) Stressors, (4) Psychiatric and Physical Health Symptoms, (5) Dissociative Experiences, and (6) Ineffective Coping Attempts. Participants reported that they were able to identify their reasons for self-injuring sometimes (60.26%) or almost always (28.85%), with only 3.20% unable to identify any reasons for their self-injury.

CONCLUSION

Results suggest that the vast majority of DD patients (92.31%) reported being at least partially unaware of what leads them to have self-injury urges, and many individuals with DDs experience some reasons for self-injury that are different from those with other disorders. The treatment implications of these findings are discussed.