Self-harm and eating disorders are coping mechanisms that often indicate underlying psychological distress. Both tend to start in adolescence or early adulthood and are more common among girls than boys. They have multiple risk factors in common, including experience of trauma. One study found more than half of patients with a history of self-harm also had an eating disorder while prevalence of self-harm among patients with eating disorders was estimated to be between 25 and 55 per cent.
The Covid-19 crisis has been linked to a deterioration in young people’s mental health. Researchers from Keele University, the University of Manchester, University of Exeter and mental health research charity The McPin Foundation wanted to explore rates of self-harm and eating disorders in the two years following the onset of the pandemic.
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