Non-Suicidal Self-Injury: Diagnosis, Assessment, and Treatment

Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) is the purposeful damage of body tissue for purposes of emotion regulation, escaping a negative state, inducing a positive state, self-punishment, communicating distress, interpersonal influence, or punishing others. Common forms of NSSI include cutting, scratching, wound interference, striking objects, banging/hitting, pinching, and pulling hair. Treatment approaches that enhance emotion regulation and tolerance may be implicated, such as dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), emotion regulation individual therapy, or cognitive therapeutic approaches.