This is the fourteenth annual report from the National Self-Harm Registry Ireland. The Registry is funded by the HSE’s National Office for Suicide Prevention. It is based on data collected on persons presenting to hospital emergency departments (EDs) following self-harm in 2015 in the Republic of Ireland. The Registry had near complete coverage of the country’s hospitals for the period 2002-2005 and, since 2006, all general hospital and paediatric hospital EDs in the Republic of Ireland have contributed data to the Registry.

Intentional drug overdose was the most common method of self-harm, involved in 65% of all acts registered in 2015. Minor tranquillisers, paracetamolcontaining medicines and anti-depressants/mood stabilisers were involved in 38%, 29% and 20% of drug overdose acts, respectively. In 2015, the number of self-harm presentations to hospital involving street drugs increased by 18% from 2014 (following an increase in 2014 by 11%) to 547, which is higher than the level recorded in 2008 (n=462). Drug misuse is an important characteristic of completed suicides3, 4 and research should examine the sources of illicit drugs used in intentional overdose.