OBJECTIVES World Health Organization classifies violence into three broad categories: interpersonal, collective, and self-inflicted. The latter can be subdivided into suicidal behavior and self-injury. Globally, among those aged 15-44 years, self-inflicted injuries are the fourth leading cause of death and the sixth leading cause of ill-health and disability. In Brazil, until 2006, description of self-inflicted lesions was limited. With the Violence and Accidents Surveillance System (VIVA/SINAN) implementation, the number of variables evaluated in injuries monitoring has increased. Therefore, to raise awareness on prevalence and causes of self-inflicted lesions, this study aims to describe its profile in Brazil according to records of violence compulsory notification.

METHODS A descriptive research, applying secondary data from VIVA/SINAN was conducted from 2009 to 2016. Self-inflicted lesion, age, gender, place, year, geographic region and type of aggression (only those related with self-inflicted lesions, based on the definition of VIVA/SINAN manual) were defined as study variables and, then, analyzed by descriptive statistics.

RESULTS Between 2009-2016, 187,140 notifications of self-inflicted lesions were reported. An increase profile was observed, with 3,941 and 45,489 cases reported in 2009 and 2016, respectively. Southern and Southeastern Brazilian regions presented higher cases occurrence (75% of all cases). Self-inflicted lesions were more common in women, with proportions varying from 66%-67%, according to analyzed year. Most of victims (71%) were adults, aging from 20-59 years. Between 72%-80% of cases occurred at victims dwelling. Poisoning was the most frequent type of aggression, corresponding to 39.2% in 2010 and 50.1% in 2016.

CONCLUSIONS This study shows an increased number of self-inflicted lesions through years in Brazil, with adult women being the most affected profile. Also, the results highlight a necessity to create effective preventive measures, in order to prevent the number of cases from continuing to grow.