Shocking self-harm figures are revealed

The event also examined new research that shows 10 per cent of teenagers in Northern Ireland have self-harmed - and a further 13 per cent have thought seriously about doing so in the past year.

Conducted by the University of Stirling (Professor Rory O'Connor) in collaboration with the University of Oxford (Professor Keith Hawton) and University of Strathclyde (Dr Susan Rasmussen), the research involved putting questions to over three and a half thousand secondary school students and is the largest study of its kind to examine the prevalence of adolescent self-harm in Northern Ireland.

Funded by the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety, the research, was presented for the first time at the 'Working Together to Address Suicide and Self-harm' Conference in Londonderry. It shows that girls are at least three times more likely to report self-harm than boys.

The research corroborates a report in the Sentinel last summer that highlighted staggering levels of self-harm and attempted suicide resulted in Londonderry.

Professor Rory O'Connor of the Suicidal Behaviour Research Group at the University of Stirling, who led the new research, said: "Although it is not possible to determine what causes young people to self-harm from this study, a number of factors were associated with it.

"Drug and alcohol use, bullying, concerns about sexual orientation, sexual abuse, self-harm by family and friends, impulsivity, anxiety and low levels of self-esteem were associated with lifetime self-harm."

Professor O'Connor said that the Troubles here were not a key influence but that adolescents who had direct experience of the conflict were more likely to report self-harm.

"The young people reported many different motives for their self-harm, including getting relief from a terrible state of mind and wanting to punish themselves. In addition, half of the respondents said that they had seriously wanted to kill themselves," he stated.

"Although adolescent self-harm appears to be lower in Northern Ireland than it is in the Republic of Ireland, Scotland and England, there is no room to be complacent, 1 in 10 of Northern Irish adolescents is affected.

"Self-harm is a major public health issue, as we know from the self-harm register that the rates of hospital-treated self-harm among adults are worryingly high."

Colm Donaghy, Chair of the Northern Ireland Regional Suicide Implementation Body, welcomed the research.

He said: "The recently published two year report of the Registry of Deliberate Self harm - which operates at Erne, Omagh and Altnagelvin Accident and Emergency Departments - shows that there are over 1,300 presentations due to deliberate self harm annually at these sites.

"It is clearly a major concern for our society and the more we understand about this issue, the better informed our efforts will be to address the problem."