Prevalence of deliberate self harm and attempted suicide within contemporary Goth youth subculture: longitudinal cohort study -- Young et al. 332 (754

Prevalence of deliberate self harm and attempted suicide within contemporary Goth youth subculture: longitudinal cohort study -- Young et al. 332 (7549): 1058 -- BMJ: "Deliberate self harm is relatively common among young people, with rates of 7%-14% in the United Kingdom.1 2 Common acts of self harm include cutting, burning, and punching, usually resulting in relatively minor injury; rarer, more serious, acts include self poisoning.

Self harm is understood to be a maladaptive coping strategy intended to relieve negative emotions such as anger, anxiety, frustration, or guilt. It is usually unrelated to an immediate suicide attempt. Knowledge about risk factors is limited, but previous research has implicated peer modelling and depression.1 2 Self harm is related to later risk of suicide and psychiatric disorder and has a high prevalence among certain subpopulations, notably prisoners and homosexual and bisexual people.1-3 The media have linked contemporary Goth youth subculture with self harm,4 but evidence for this is sparse. 'Goth' could be described as a subgenre of punk with a dark and sinister aesthetic, with aficionados conspicuous by their range of distinctive clothing and makeup and tastes in music.4 5 We investigated whether identification with Goth is associated with self harm."