Several studies have distinguished between self-harm with intent to die (attempted suicide), and self-harm with no suicidal intent, commonly termed non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) [6,7]. Rates of NSSI among community samples of adolescents are considerably higher than self-harm with suicidal intent: rates for the former have been found to be between 15.0%-21.2% [8-11], whereas suicidal attempts range from 4.0% to 10.5% [9,10,12]. However, the extent to which these represent separate behaviours, with different risk and protective factors and serving different functions, as opposed to more or less extreme variations of the same behaviour remains unclear [8], particularly as those who engage in NSSI are at increased risk of suicide attempts compared to those who do not self-harm at all [2,7].
