PERSONALITY PROFILE AMONG PATIENTS WITH DELIBERATE SELF HARM IN TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL: A CROSS SECTIONAL STUDY

Abstract

Background Deliberate self-harm (DSM) refers to an intentional act of causing physical injury to oneself without wanting to die. DSH subjects with any personality disorder have more suicide attempts than those without personality disorder. A psychosocial assessment is an important area to assess DSH. It is important to further explore and better understand the correlates of self-harming behaviours and their outcomes. Although several studies have been conducted on identifying the socioeconomic factors for deliberate self-harm on adolescent populations and their personality disorders, only limited studies are available on general population. Objectives: To determine the personality profile among patients with deliberate self-harm (DSH) and to study the relationship between socio- demographic factors and deliberate self-harm (DSH). Methodology The participants in this analytical cross-sectional study were 193 adult individuals who had a history of DSH and who visited the psychiatric department of RL Jalappa hospital in Kolar between September 2022 and December 2023. The researcher conducted a comprehensive investigation into xiii DSH, gathering detailed accounts from patients and a trusted informant through in-depth interviews. Subsequently, these case studies were deliberated with the psychiatrist in the department. The diagnosis of personality profiles in patients who engage in DSH was determined according to the recommendations provided by the ICD-10 and DSM-V, and the IPDE questionnaire was utilized. Responses were documented and scoring was conducted according to the answers provided. Results The mean age of 193 research subjects was 31.46 ± 9.75 years. Among these samples, 51.3% were female and the occurrence of co-morbidities was noticed among 24.9%. About 70.5% belonged to lower income status, and 68.4% were unmarried. Among the respondents, 51.8% were employed and the remaining 48.2% were unemployed. Around 84.9% came from rural areas while 32.6% completed high school education. Among the study participants, 95.3% belongs to Hindu religion. Among 193 research patients, 57.5% attempted deliberate self-harm without any psychiatric illness while 42.5% attempted deliberate self-harm with the presence of psychiatric illness. Among them 53.4% had a previous history of suicide attempts. Nearly 51.3% have self-reported the presence of stress and the most common reason for this stress was family issues. The most common method of suicide attempts was liquid poison (65.8%), followed by Multiple xiv tablets (14.5%). Among the study participants, substance abuse was noticed among 50.25%. The most common substance abuse was alcohol use in the present study. The most common personality trait in the present study was borderline (24.9%) and it was followed by dependent (21.8%) and impulsive (14%). Cluster B (50.8%) was the most common personality cluster in the present study. Cluster C was noticed among 34.2% of the samples and the remaining 15% was Cluster A group of personality. The factors influencing the personality profile among patients with deliberate self-harm were younger age (18 to 30 years), female gender, lower education (school education), lower income status, unmarried, unemployment, history of suicidal attempts especially with more than 2 attempts, stress, substance abuse, and use of liquid poison for self-harm (p value less than 0.05). Conclusion: Our results are in line with those of other researchers who have found that mental health issues increase the likelihood of suicidal thoughts and behaviours. The assessment of personality traits among DSH patients necessitates additional research in this area using larger numbers of participants.