Self-harm rates soar among girls in UK

There has been a “rapid” rise in teenage girls self-harming in recent years, experts have found.

Reports of self-harm among British girls aged between 13 and 16 rose by 68 per cent between 2011 and 2014, according to new research.

The University of Manchester gathered data from 674 general practices across the UK on those aged ten to 19 years who had selfharmed.

The study, published in the British Medical Journal, found 16,912 children and adolescents were identified as having self-harmed at least once from 2011-14.

Of these, almost three-quarters (73 per cent) were girls.

The rate of self-harm was 37.4 out of every 10,000 girls compared to 12.3 per 10,000 boys.