Teenagers and young adults who present to ED with self-harm are at “considerable” risk of repeat self-harm or suicide death in the year — particularly the first month — following presentation, new data show.

Researchers from UNSW’s Black Dog Institute in Sydney also say patients aged 15-29 years, males and those admitted to hospital for the index self-harm had the highest risk of repeat events.

“Youth-specific early intervention and long-term management of self-harm is critical to prevent repeat self-harm and suicide deaths, especially for those at early adolescence,” they report in the Journal of Affective Disorders.

Using NSW hospital admissions and ED presentations data from 2014-2019, the authors identified 81,133 self-harm presentations among 48,547 patients aged 10-29 years.