deliberate self-burning : the psychosocial and clinical patterns among patients admitted to burn unit in king Hussein medical centre Jordan

الملخص EN

This paper studied the psychosocial characteristics and clinical patterns of 36 patients with deliberate self- burning out of a total of 882 patients admitted to the Burn Unit of the Royal Jordanian Rehabilitation Center, King Hussein Medical Center, Jordan, over a 5-year period from January 2000 to December 2004.

Deliberate self-burning (DSB) represents 4% of all admissions and is more common among females (n = 31) than males (n = 5) with sex ratio F : M of 6 : 1.

Half of the cases were between 20 and 30 years of age with the mean age of 30 years, all males and the majority of females (61 %) were married.

The mortality rate was 79 % and the median Total Body Surface Area (TBSA) burnt was 60 %.

Forty-eight percent of patients (n = 15) had previous deliberate self-burn (DSB).

Seventy-eight percent of subjects had a psychiatric diagnosis, of which the most common diagnosis made was adjustment disorder (44 %), while the other 22 % were found with social, familial or marital problems.

Recommendations were made for some preventive measures.