- Veterans may be prone to engage in repetitive behaviors meant to reduce distress and gain control over their environment (such as NSSI) due to military training learning histories and/or comorbid disorders associated with increased need for control and decreased tolerance for unpleasant emotions


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1. Pre-existing psychiatric conditions and diagnosis of NSSID
2. Association between NSSID & other psychiatric conditions
3. BPD & NSSID

Findings Regarding Veterans & NSSID

Patel, T. A., Mann, A., Blakey, S. M., Aunon, F. M., Calhoun, P. S., Beckham, J. C., & Kimbrel, N. A. (2021). Diagnostic Correlates of Nonsuicidal Self-Injury Disorder among Veterans with Psychiatric Disorders. Psychiatry research, 296, 113672. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2020.113672


Non-Suicidal Self-Injury Among Veterans with Psychiatric Disorders

Although veterans with PTSD were specifically targeted because : 
- NSSI is substantially underreported among veterans  
- Veterans seeking treatment for PTSD have particularly high rates of NSSI
Researchers found diagnoses of NSSID to be unrelated to PTSD

Likewise, NSSID was also unrelated to:
- The majority of anxiety disorders
- Substance use disorders
- Eating disorders 

However, they did find that veterans who were diagnosed with: 
- Depression
- OCD
- Generalized anxiety disorder
- Cannabis use disorder
Met more criteria for NSSID

Connection Between NSSID & Other Illnesses

- Veterans with NSSID met criteria for a significantly greater number of disorders than veterans with other psychiatric disorders
- On average, veterans with NSSID met full diagnostic criteria for five
psychiatric disorders over the course of their lifetimes
- Each additional disorder more than doubled participants’ odds
of meeting criteria for NSSID

Pre-Existing Psychiatric Disorders & NSSID

- Researchers found that borderline personality disorder was the psychiatric diagnosis most strongly associated with NSSID at both the bivariate and
multivariate level

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