Ms. Sarah Swannell BPsych(Hons) GradCertBiostat

Position:

Senior Research Technician, Discipline of Psychiatry, University of Queensland

Contact Details:

Phone: (07) 3365 5471
Fax: (07) 3365 5488
Mob: 0431 242 462
Email: s.swannell@uq.edu.au

Profile:

My primary research interest is the neural mechanisms that account for the subjective tension relief felt after self-harm, which is the topic of my PhD. My project will use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate brain activity while participants self-administer a noxious thermal stimulus.

Another major project I am currently working on is ANESSI – Australian National Epidemiological Study on Self-Injury. This project is funded by the Department of Health and Ageing and aims to establish the prevalence of self-harm in Australia across all age groups. The project will use Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI) with 12,000 respondents aged 10 and above across all states and territories in Australia. The survey will include questions on self-harm, suicide, mental illness, tobacco, alcohol and drug use, traumatic and significant psychosocial events.

My colleagues and I are also developing a CD Training Tool for Professionals about self-harm. This project is funded by the Queensland Government Department of Communities and is designed to change attitudes, provide information, increase understanding, develop confidence in the capacity to care, and teach clinical skills to a wide range of professionals who are likely to encounter people who self-harm. The ultimate aim of the project is to teach people how to respond to adolescents who self-harm in a way that will not only reduce the chance that the young person will repeat the self-harm or suicide, but also assist in addressing the underlying issues causing the young person to self-harm.

Other studies pertaining to self-harm that I am involved in include the motivations for self-injury among adolescent inpatients, self-injury and psychological correlates in high school and university students and the analysis of self-harm websites.

Research Interests:

Studies that I am interested in conducting in the future include:

1. determining if routine management guidelines following self-harm exist and are currently being adhered to in accident and emergency departments in Australia
2. educating adolescents about what to do when a friend discloses thoughts of self-harm or actually self-harms
3. determining the experiences of family and friends of people who self-harm and consequently developing appropriate helpful services for them
4. establishing a public information campaign to raise awareness and understanding of self-harm
5. investigating the association between parental emotional neglect and self-harm independent of abuse
6. investigating whether inpatient psychiatric hospitalisation reduces self-harming behaviour
7. investigating the relationship between alexithymia and self-harm
8. conducting further investigations in coping and self-harm
9. conducting further investigations in emotion regulation and self-harm
10. conducting further investigations into the motivations for self-harm and whether the motivations differ according to patient status (ie inpatient, outpatient, community), age, SES, religious affiliation, sexual orientation etc.

Publications:

Swannell S, Martin G, Scott J, Gibbons M, Gifford S. Motivations for self-injury in an adolescent inpatient psychiatric population. Australasian Psychiatry. In press.