Dietary Patterns and Self-Harm Risk In Adolescents

Adolescent deliberate self-harm is a major public health concern not only due to the immediate physical harm that it causes, but also due to its strong association with psychological distress, suicide, and high comorbidity with mental disorders. Dietary intake and nutritional deficiencies may act as crucial factors in the prevalence and incidence of mental disorders, including depression. Dietary patterns and nutrition offer key modifiable targets for the prevention of mental disorders and could be beneficial in modulating self-harm amongst adolescents. This study investigated whether dietary patterns influence self-harm outcomes in adolescents. Risk factors that positively predicted self-harm included identifying as female and high vegetarian dietary pattern scores (p \u3c0.001), however no other dietary patterns were significant. Future investigations examining alternative eating patterns, especially amongst female vegetarians, could help predict self-harm amongst adolescents