Self-incineration: a controlled comparison of in-patient suicide attempts. Clinical features and history of self-harm

Abstract

SynopsisA systematic survey of in-patient accidents and injuries in an inner London hospital over 9 years established that, after incisions and overdoses, self-incineration was one of the commoner methods of violent self-harm. A case-controlled study of in-patient suicide attempts compared a series of 12 self-incinerators with 12 patients using other methods. Irrespective of method, the suicide attempt was predominantly a psychotic act of young single people with chronic, severe disorders and considerable past parasuicide, in a setting of escalating self-harm. Younger age, greater psychiatric morbidity, absence of alcoholism, a history of childhood arson, past and current self-burning were the features specific to self-incineration, which had a 25% mortality rate.