Self-harming persons have a significantly increased risk of remitting themselves to death by suicide. Evidence derived from effective preventive efforts concerning deliberate self-harm is limited and contradictive, calling for alternative research designs for evaluating the provided treatment. The present study uses register data on treatment of self-harm to analyse characteristics of the patients, effect of treatment, compliance and reduction of deliberate self-harm episodes. Method: We used a

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... dataset from The Clinic of Suicide Prevention, Odense, consistently updated since 1992. A total of 3037 patients treated after an incident of deliberate self-harm were investigated targeting a subpopulation of patients (N = 377) with multiple treatments over a period of 20 years. The methodological approach was mixed design. From the subpopulation (377 multiple treatments), 56 treatment case records (3+ treatments) were reviewed using qualitative thematic analysis. Principal Components Analysis (PCA) was used on a reduced dataset of 2122 patients, including 31 relevant patient characteristics, to identify main principal factors that might be important as triggers of self-harm. Results: From the qualitative analyses two major themes were recognized: Patients social and psychological problems and their relation to psychotherapeutic treatment, as well as compliance. The PCA showed significant similarities between single and multiple users of treatment, indicating that conclusion from the qualitative analyses on the last group might be extrapolated to the former. Chronic illness with pain was shown to be the main factor with affiliation to increasing age and loneliness. Discussion: The study demonstrates connection between social and psychological characteristics, compliance and profit of treatment. Psychotherapeutic treatment reduces number of deliberate self-harm episodes. Therapeutic treatment tools can be traced in improved relational skills. Patients use easy access to help as a way of handling life with suicidal ideation and deliberate self-harm.