Suicide & self-harm monitoring
Intentional self-harm hospitalisations by method
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Background Hospitalisations by method of self-harm Download data tablesBackground
Understanding the methods used for intentional self-harm can play an important role in its prevention. These data are provided to inform discussion around restriction of access to means as a policy intervention for the prevention of suicide and self-harm.
Please consider your need to read the following information. If this material raises concerns for you or if you need immediate assistance, please contact a crisis support service, available free of charge, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Please consider the Mindframe guidelines if reporting on these statistics.
The classification system used to code hospital admissions data, ICD-10-AM, uses the term ‘mechanism’ to refer to the external cause of a self-inflicted injury. Throughout Suicide and self-harm monitoring, ‘mechanism’ has been used in data visualisations, while the term ‘method’ has been used in the accompanying text.
Hospitalisations data for patients with intentional self-harm injuries includes those with and without suicidal intent. For further information see Technical notes.
The line graph shows the age-specific rates of intentional self-harm hospitalisations for persons of all ages from 2008–09 to 2023–24 by method of self-harm. Users can also choose to view age-specific rates, numbers, and proportions of hospitalisations for intentional self-harm by sex for each age group.
Hospitalisations by method of self-harm
Most intentional self-harm hospitalisations are due to poisoning by pharmaceutical drugs
Between 2008–09 and 2023–24, the 2 most common methods of self-harm resulting in hospitalisation were intentional self-poisoning by anti-epileptic, sedative-hypnotic, antiparkinsonism and psychotropic drugs, not elsewhere classified (benzodiazepines are included in this category) (X61) and intentional self-poisoning by nonopioid analgesics, antipyretics and antirheumatics (X60):
- Intentional self-poisoning by anti-epileptic, sedative-hypnotic, antiparkinsonism and psychotropic drugs, not elsewhere classified(X61), was responsible for 36% of intentional self-harm hospitalisations in 2023–24.
- In 2022–24, 5,761 females were hospitalised as a result of this method of self-harm, compared to 2,946 males. This is almost 2 times as many hospitalisations among females compared to males in 2023–24.
- Intentional self-poisoning by nonopioid analgesics, antipyretics and antirheumatics(X60) was responsible for 20% of intentional self-harm hospitalisations in 2023–24.
- This category includes anti-inflammatory drugs, such as ibuprofen, antipyretics (for example, aspirin and paracetamol) and anti-rheumatics (some of which are used to treat arthritis).
- More than 3 times as many hospitalisations were among females due to this method of self-harm in 2023–24 compared to male hospitalisations (3,761 and 1,074 hospitalisations, respectively).
Other drugs (X63, X64) was another common method of self-harm resulting in hospitalisation.
- Other drugs included Intentional self-poisoning by and exposure to other drugs acting on the autonomic nervous system (X63) and Intentional self-poisoning by and exposure to other and unspecified drugs, medicaments and biological substances (X64).
This method of self-inflicted injury accounted for 14% of all intentional self-harm hospitalisations in 2023–24, with more hospitalisations among females than males (2,182 and 1,222 hospitalisations, respectively).
Hanging (X70), Gas (X67) and Other cause (X71–X77, X79, X80-X84, Y87.0) were the only methods of intentional self-harm that resulted in more male than female hospitalisations overall in 2023–24 (423 and 284 hospitalisations due to hanging, 84 and 30 hospitalisations due to gas, and 497 and 483 hospitalisations due to Other cause, respectively).
Download data tables
Supplementary tables
Hospitalisations for intentional self-harm 2023–24 – National Hospital Morbidity Database