Socio-Demographic Profile and Self-Injurious Behavior among Patients with Mania at a Tertiary Care Hospital

Background:  Mania is a common mood disorder. Mania associated with distractibility, irritability, impulsive behavior, great physical and mental activity. Irritability and impulsive behavior can lead to variable degree of self-injurious behavior. Self-injurious behavior more troublesome to patient and family members, there is a lack of proper research in the field of self-injurious behavior and mania. Objective: To assess the sociodemographic profile of self- injurious behavior in mania and self- injurious behavior in relation to severity of mania. Methods: Present study was a hospital based cross sectional study. The study was conducted at a tertiary care psychiatric hospital for a period of 6 months. 40 Patients with bipolar affective disorder with currently Mania with or without psychosis were included in the study. Patients with other psychiatric disorder were excluded from the study. Results: The mean age of study subjects was 29.75+7.012. The overall prevalence of self-injurious behavior among patients with mania was 37.5%. Cutting was seen in 4 males and 4 female patients. Burned with a cigarette and Burned with a lighter was seen only in one male patient. The age of onset of cutting and banged was seen at around 26 years of age. Total duration of mania for cutting was around 14 years and 17 years for head banged. Conclusion: The overall prevalence of self-injurious behavior among patients with mania was 37.5%. This was more in females as compared to males. But the difference is narrow and cannot be statistically significant.