Self-Destructive Behaviors

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Self-Destructive Behaviors
_______________
_______________

• Prof. Matthew K. Nock
• August 31, 2010

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Course Description
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• Objectives
• Understanding of theoretical models of
  self-destructive behaviors
• Understanding methods used in psychological
  science
• Understanding of assessment treatment
  approaches
• Stimulate thinking and dialogue in this area

Suicide/self-injury as only one class of
behavioral outcomes
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Course Structure
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• Course structure, requirements, grading
• Weekly thought papers (25)
• Class participation (25)
• Class presentation (25)
• Final paper (25)

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Course Participants
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Introductions Who are you? Why are you taking
this course? What do you want to learn? Other
comments?
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Why Study Self-Injury?
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There is but one truly serious philosophical
problem, and that is suicide. Judging whether
life is or is not worth living amounts to
answering the fundamental question of philosophy.
All the rest whether or not the world has three
dimensions, whether the mind has nine or twelve
categories comes afterwards. These are games
one must first answer. --Albert Camus, The
Myth of Sisyphus
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Myths about Suicide
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• Suicide is a very rare event
• False
• Suicide is the 11th leading cause of death in
  the US, with 30,000 deaths each year

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Myths about Suicide
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• Suicide is more frequent than homicide
• True
• Suicides outnumber homicides (17,000)
• and HIV/AIDS related deaths (15,000) each year
  in the US

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Myths about Suicide
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• Most people who kill themselves have a mental
  disorder
• True
• 90-95 of individuals who die by suicide have a
  diagnosable mental disorder at the time of their
  death

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Myths about Suicide
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• Most suicides occur in the winter around the
  holidays
• False
• Most suicides occur in the spring and summer
  months

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Myths about Suicide
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• People who engage in non-suicidal self-injury
  (e.g., cutting) only do so for attention
• False
• Most people who engage in NSSI report doing so
  for the purpose of emotion regulation
• although some do report social reinforcement as
  a motivation

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Myths about Suicide
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• Self-injurious thoughts and behaviors are rare
  among young people
• False
• As many as 20-25 of high school students report
  serious thoughts of suicide in the past 12 months

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Myths about Suicide
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• More men then women die by suicide
• True
• The gender ratio is 41

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Myths about Suicide
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• More white people die by suicide than other
  ethnicities in the US
• True
• 90 of suicides are by white people in the US
• and 73 are by white men.

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Myths about Suicide
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• Suicide is caused by low self-esteem
• False
• Suicide is a multi-determined behavior and no
  current causes of suicide are known.

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Study of Self-Injury
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Mental state?
Context Family, peers, media?
Psychopathology?
Self-injury
Survivors?
Treatment Drugs, therapy?
Biology Genetics, NTs?
Assessment?
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Self-Destructive Behaviors
_______________
_______________

• Prof. Matthew K. Nock
• August 31, 2010