Self‐harm, defined for the purpose of this review as any act of self‐injury without explicit suicidal intent, is an increasing public health concern, with potential long‐term implications for those who engage in it. Previous research has identified a correlational relationship between self‐harm and alexithymia, an emotion processing deficit characterized by difficulties identifying and describing feelings, and an externally orientated thinking style. Through a systematic search of the literature, the current review examines the association between alexithymia and self‐harm. A meta‐analysis based on 23 studies found a significant, positive relationship between self‐harm and alexithymia, with a medium effect size (g = 0.57, 95% CI 0.46–0.69). All 23 studies used the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS20) to measure alexithymia. The alexithymia subcomponents difficulty identifying feelings and difficulty describing feelings were significantly associated with self‐harm, but there was no significant association between self‐harm and externally orientated thinking. The effect size of the relationship was significantly larger in adolescent samples compared with adult samples and in female compared with male samples. The definition of self‐harm did not affect the effect size of the relationship between alexithymia and self‐harm and the results are consistent with previous meta‐analyses focused more narrowly on non‐suicidal self‐injury and, separately, suicidal behaviors. Heterogeneity between the included studies was high. The results support an affect regulation model of self‐harm, in which self‐harm is used to regulate an emotional experience that is poorly understood.

中文翻译：

---

自我伤害与智力障碍之间的关系：系统评价和荟萃分析。

在本次审查中，自残定义为没有明确自杀意图的任何自残行为，是一种日益严重的公共卫生问题，对参与其中的人具有潜在的长期影响。先前的研究已经确定了自我伤害与智力低下之间的相关关系，以难以识别和描述情感为特征的情绪处理缺陷以及外向型思维方式。通过对文献的系统搜索，本篇综述探讨了运动障碍与自我伤害之间的关系。一项基于23项研究的荟萃分析发现，自我伤害与运动障碍之间存在显着的正相关关系，且影响大小中等（g = 0.57，95％CI 0.46-0.69）。所有的23项研究均使用多伦多Alexithymia量表（TAS20）来测量Alexithymymia。习题的亚组识别困难和描述情感的困难与自我伤害显着相关，但是自我伤害与外向思维之间没有显着关联。与成人样品相比，该关系的影响大小在青春期样品中明显更大，而在女性中，与男性样品相比，该关系的影响大小明显更大。自我伤害的定义并未影响阅读障碍与自我伤害之间关系的影响大小，其结果与以前的荟萃分析一致，后者仅侧重于非自杀性自残以及自杀行为。纳入研究之间的异质性很高。