Valued attributes of professional support for people who repeatedly self-harm: A systematic review and meta-synthesis of first-hand accounts.

The review synthesizes accounts from people who had already reduced or stopped self-harm, so it cannot show what caused that change. Quotations containing therapy or counselling references did not identify the specific treatment approaches, so the review cannot compare therapies or isolate techniques. Only 23 articles contained direct accounts related to professional support, and the 67 quotations could not be linked to a known number of individuals. The review was limited to English-language versions, which may exclude culturally varied experiences. The team relied on quotations selected by original authors, and some articles lacked context about the professional interactions. Most articles had larger samples of women than men, and one article did not describe the recruitment setting.

The article states that the project was funded by the National Institute for Health Research Programme Grants for Applied Research; its funding and conflicts statement names only this funder.

Do not read these themes as evidence that a particular nurse behaviour or therapy makes self-harm stop. The review reports what people who had already reduced or stopped self-harm valued, and it could not identify the specific therapies they received.