Psychiatric and self-injury profiles of adolescent suicide attempters versus adolescents engaged in nonsuicidal self-injury.

To better delineate the unique correlates of self-injurious behaviors (SIB), psychiatric profiles of mutually exclusive groups of adolescents who made a suicide attempt (SA) versus those engaged in nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) were examined. Contrary to hypotheses, the NSSI group endorsed earlier onsets of SIB and suicidal ideation (SI), as well as higher rates of depression and anxiety compared with their SA counterparts. Future work is warranted to understand the role of SI, including duration of SI and anxiety in the development of NSSI, and to identify risk and resiliency factors useful in predicting an adolescent's SIB status.