ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we discuss the prevalence of self-harm behavior (SHB) among individuals with eating disorders. Using the Medline and PsyINFO databases, we discovered that large epidemiological studies on the prevalence of SHB among those with eating disorders are not currently available. However, we summarize available data from existing studies, examining suicide attempts versus other forms of self-injury among the various diagnostic subgroups. We found that the prevalence of suicide attempts among outpatient bulimics is 22% (N = 1308), inpatient bulimics 39% (N = 260), alcoholic bulimics 54% (N = 76), and outpatient anorexics 11% (N = 497). The prevalence of self-injury among outpatient bulimics is 25% (N = 574), inpatient bulimics 25% (N = 260), and outpatient anorexics 22% (N = 288). We discuss the possible implications of these findings for clinical practice and future research.
