Heal Thy Self: A Literature Review on Self-injurious Behavior

Self-injurious Behavior (SIB) is a behavior in which an individual inflicts harm to himself/herself. The COVID-19 pandemic has led to an unparallel change that has impacted the psychology of the population greatly. This can be considered as a major factor influencing self-harm & about a one fourth of all adolescents and children may be seen displaying this sort of this behavior. The exact prevalence of SIB is unknown & widely underestimated. These behaviors are usually hidden and considered to be socially unacceptable. In this current pandemic situation, there has been a upward trend of such behaviors and hence an active collaborative effort should be taken to raise awareness about self-injurious behavior amongst schools, colleges, community and social welfare groups by and large. This article is a small attempt from author's side to raise awareness which will aid in early diagnosis and timely intervention, thereby improve quality of life of such individuals. A thorough literature search of articles through PubMed, EBSCO, Google Scholar, Inside Dentistry and medRxiv electronic Databases published in English language from year 1974 to year 2021was done. Articles providing information regarding self-injurious behavior were selected