This study aims to describe neuropsychological factors associated to self-injurious behavior based on an integrative literature review of papers accessed through electronic databases in the Virtual Healthcare Library. As instrument, we used information forms for each paper. A total of 59 papers were found and 21 (36%) matched inclusion criterion: publication in Portuguese or English from 2000 to 2009 publicly available or available at CAPES Portal of Electronic Scientific Journals. Difficulties related to functions such as problem solving and decision making abilities (38%), impulsiveness (24%), emotional regulation (21%) and psychological stress (17%) were associated to self-harm. Results suggest that problems in pre-frontal circuits of the brain may be related to self-harm, since they are involved in the mechanisms of the mentioned neural functions.
Self-injurious behavior; Neuropsychology; prefrontal cortex
