Frequent deliberate self-harm: repetition, suicide and cost after three or more years.

This is a follow-up study of 44 patients who were admitted to the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh after frequent deliberate self-harm (defined as three or more episodes of deliberate self-harm within one week) at least once between 1982 and 1987. Forty-two patients (95%) were traced after a minimum of three years (range 3yr 1 mo 8yr 9mo). Thirty eight patients were known to have repeated self-harm an average of 13 times during the follow-up. Only two patients had died, one of these by probable suicide. The average cost solely attributable to the in-patient accommodation and psychiatric assessment of this group during follow-up was 34,036.60 pounds (1986-87 prices).