Research led by a University of Glasgow professor of psychology has identified a physiological marker associated with self-harm in young people.
In the latest of a series of studies into the factors associated with self-harm, Professor Rory O’Connor, Chair in Health Psychology at the University’s Institute of Health and Wellbeing, has found young people with a history of self-harm present a particular biological skin response to electrical activity – providing a physiological marker that can flag a person’s difficulties managing their emotions.
Psychologists say, for many young people, self-harm is used to deal with distress or overwhelming feelings.
Professor O’Connor says bio-physiological mechanisms associated with generating emotions could be key to understanding why young people self-harm, and identifying particular markers could allow those at risk to get help:
“The factors associated with self-harm are complex; indeed, self-harm has cultural, social, psychological and biological influences. However, the biological mechanisms underpinning self-harm are poorly understood.”
With funding from the Medical Research Foundation, Professor O’Connor has been investigating how emotion arousal is associated with self-harm in young people by observing a biological factor called ‘electrodermal activity’ (EDA) – changes in the skin’s ability to conduct electricity.
The researchers say, when a person is calm their skin’s electrical resistance is typically high but, during states of excitement, stress, or fear, it tends to decrease, largely due to sweat glands and the sympathetic nervous system – allowing measurement of EDA to be used to investigate and measure emotional responses.
In a paper published in Nature Mental Health, the Glasgow team explained that they measured EDA among three groups of young people aged 16-25 years with varying histories of self-harm: those with no history, those with self-harming thoughts but who didn’t self-harm, and those where self-harm had taken place.
Dr Karen Wetherall, Research Fellow at the University of Glasgow and first author of the study, added:
“Distinguishing what makes a young person vulnerable to acting on their self-harm thoughts is crucial to understanding why some people transition from thinking about self-harm, to enacting it. Previous research findings have been unclear about how EDA and self-harm may be related – so we wanted to shed more light on this relationship.”
ADVERTISEMENT
The team measured EDA during several tasks, including repeated auditory tones, a stress-induction experiment, and an emotional images task.
The researchers discovered that young people who engaged in self-harm showed stronger physical reactions, as measured by EDA, when faced with both neutral and stressful tasks. This, the researchers say, suggests that young people with a history of self-harm may experience emotion arousal differently, making it harder to regulate their emotions.
Professor O’Connor added:
“Our findings suggest that the way young people process emotions may be key to understanding self-harm. The results also indicate that tailored interventions focusing on emotion regulation strategies could be particularly effective in managing self-harm”.
The team says the insights from their study could help identify which young people are most at risk of self-harm or suicide – and lays the groundwork for future research into treatments, with the potential to improve outcomes for young people struggling with their mental health.
Read a longer report on the research.
Read more: Scotland facing “mental health emergency”; CAMHS target met, but long waits remain; Youth mental health pilot looks to the future; Government outlaws assisting self-harm;
Sign up to our bulletin for key health & social care updates straight to your inbox.
link
