IntroductionThe incident I chose for my nursing project occurred on the last day of my learning disability placement. It involved a young autistic man, who I will refer to as “John” throughout my post. This is to protect the identity of the client, this is in accordance with clause 10 of the UKCC Code of Professional Conduct (1992): “Protect all confidential information relating to patients and clients obtained in the course of professional practice and disclose it only with the consent, where required by order of a court or where disclosure can be justified in the wider public interest.';One incident which I believe highlights the issue I will address, involved myself bathing 'John' This was not the first time I bathed a person during the internship, however, the difference this time was that while I was bathing "John", he displayed abusive elvish behavior by slapping his face and then repeating the phrase "stop slapping my face". chose this episode from my clinical journal as I believe the self-injurious behavior exhibited by "John" is an interesting and difficult nursing problem that has affected my ability to care for him. Rather than focus specifically on the self-harm relating to 'John's' case, I will look at possible ways of managing self-injurious behaviour, especially in people with learning disabilities. To manage this problem effectively, a multidisciplinary approach is needed, but for the purposes of this essay I will look at the problem from a nurse's perspective. I will start by giving a brief description of self-harming behavior and possible causes. I will then highlight the different techniques available to nurses for managing this behavior. Murphy and Wilson (1985) define self-injurious behavior as: 'Any behavior initiated by the individual, which directly results in physical harm to that individual.'; As is evident in the literature, self-harmful behavior refers to any behavior that can cause tissue damage, such as bruising, redness and open wounds. The most common forms of these behaviors include head banging, hand biting, head slapping, and excessive scratching. There are two main sets of theories on the topic and these focus on physiological or social causes. The main physiological theories are: Harmful behavior releases beta-endorphins in the person's brain. Beta-endorphins are opiate-like substances found in the brain, which provide a person with a certain pleasure when released. Sudden episodes of self-harm may be caused by subclinical seizures. Subclinical seizures are not typically associated with normal seizure behaviors as they are characterized by abnormal EEG patterns.