Self-injury and aggression
- Self-injury and aggression.
- As mentioned in Chapter 1, self-injurious behaviour has been suggested to be associated with Cornelia de Lange Syndrome 14, 20, 22, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28. Initially it was reported that self-injury was a significant feature of the syndrome. However, our research has shown that the association is not as strong as was at first thought. This is discussed in more detail in chapter 4. In addition to self-injurious behaviour, children and adults with Cornelia de Lange Syndrome can show other problem behaviours including physical and verbal aggression towards others and destruction of the environment (see Box 2.5). Interestingly, whilst there is no significant difference between the percentage of children and adults with Cornelia de Lange Syndrome who show self-injurious behaviour or destruction of the environment, children and adults with Cornelia de Lange Syndrome show significantly less aggression than children and adults who have the same degree of intellectual disability.
The graph shows that whilst individuals with Cornelia de Lange Syndrome show high rates of self-injurious behaviour, other behaviours such as physical aggression and destruction of property are also common.However, it is important to note that children and adults with Cornelia de Lange Syndrome show significantly less physical aggression than others with intellectual disability.