This is the twenty-first annual report from the National Self-Harm Registry Ireland. It is based on data collected on hospital presentations of self-harm in the Republic of Ireland in 2022 and 2023. Typically, the Registry reports on data from 32 hospitals – 29 Emergency Departments (EDs), including three in Children’s Health Ireland hospitals, and three Level 2 hospitals. Data were not available for two hospitals in 2022, and for three hospitals in 2023. Access issues arose during the COVID-19 pandemic and coincided with GDPR related changes in practices in each of these hospitals. We estimated the number of presentations and people presenting to these hospitals in each year using data from 2019. All rate calculations presented in this report are based on those estimates.

Consistent with previous years, intentional drug overdose was the most common method of self-harm, involved in 59% of self-harm presentations in 2022 and 2023. In 2022, paracetamol was the most common drug type used while in 2023, minor tranquilisers were the most common. In previous years, minor tranquilisers have been the most common drug used. Self-cutting was the other most common method, recorded in 32% of all presentations. Attempted hanging was involved in 8% of all self-harm presentations (13% for men, 5% for women). Attempted drowning was involved in 3% of presentations and, although rare as a method of self-harm, self-poisoning involving chemical substances was involved in 2% of presentations. Alcohol was involved in 30% of all presentations and was more often involved in male than female presentations (37% and 25% respectively). In general, the type of method used in self-harm was similar to recent years.