FReSH START study: Looking at new approaches for people who self-harm
Overview
This study is no longer looking for new participants but is still ongoing.
This study is looking at ways of improving therapies so they are better at supporting people who self-harm.
Summary
What is the study about? What are you trying to find out?
Repeated self-harm is common and yet there is no treatment which works well and which is readily available for people through the NHS.
One of the issues with current therapy is that self-harm tends to be treated just as a symptom of underlying distress. But we know, from what people with personal experience say, that self-harm can also have some purpose – for example producing feelings of personal strength or being in control, and sometimes producing positive emotional feelings. The reasons for self-harm are not the same for everybody, so an important part of any new therapy is time spent understanding the meaning of self-harm for the individual.
Working with people with personal experience of self-harm and with therapists, we want to develop a new approach to assessment and therapy, which looks at all the potential reasons an individual may self-harm. The assessment would support the individual in thinking about the reasons they self-harm. If we understand why somebody self-harms, then we can understand them better as a person and this will help to identify the individual’s values and goals. The therapy would then guide the individual in choosing new, less harmful, ways of reaching these goals.
Once we have developed a new therapy, we want to test it in a clinical trial to see if it is better for people than any other help they are currently getting. The main question we are asking in the trial is whether the new therapy improves quality of life. Of course we also want to know if therapy helps with depression and helps somebody self-harm less. If this is the case, then there may also be cost-savings to the NHS, as well as to patients themselves.
Why is it important?
Whichever group you were in, even if there is no direct benefit to you, you will be helping us to learn more about how to support people who self-harm.
How can I find out more?
This study is no longer looking for new participants but is still ongoing.
However, if you have questions for the research team, please email freshstart@leeds.ac.uk.
You can also visit the FReSH START project website here.
Meet the researcher
Damien LongsonAssociate Medical Director (Research & Innovation)
My name is Damien Longson and I am a Consultant Psychiatrist and the Associate Medical Director of Research & Innovation at GMMH. I have a PhD in the neurochemistry of schizophrenia, with my more recent research exploring suicide and self-harm, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and affective disorders. My current interests include developing the commercial research portfolio at GMMH as well as broadening our portfolio in health inequalities and health promotion research.
Collaborators
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