A study presented Wednesday at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America revealed that more teenagers choose to hurt themselves by embedding nails, paper clips, bits of rock, glass and even crayons in their bodies as a way to cope with their problems.

In fact, the researchers on the study called this new way of mutilation “self-embedding disorder,” in which a person uses objects to puncture the skin or embed into a wound after cutting, often causing swelling and inflammation. Some of the common forms of self-injury are cutting the skin, burning, bruising or pulling hair, breaking bones or swallowing toxic substances.

The phenomenon is relatively new putting doctors in a new position: that of not knowing what the problem is because these teenagers avoid telling the truth.

“They come in with swelling and say they fell or something. I have spoken to doctors at five different hospitals and every one of them has seen this, but they didn’t know what to call it,” Dr. William E. Shiels II, chief of radiology at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, who presented the study at the meeting.

Dr. Shiels described 19 episodes of self-embedding injury in 10 teens (nine were female, and one was male), ages 15 to 18. Most of them had significant psychiatric problems, including depression, bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder.

Together, they had jammed a total of 50 objects into their arms, two into their ankles and feet and one into their hands. Objects used included metal needles, metal staples, metal paper clips, glass, wood, plastic, graphite (pencil lead), crayon, and stone.

Seventy percent of the girls suffered repeat episodes, with at least one girl injuring herself six times. One teenager put seven different items in her arm at one time, including an unfolded metal paper clip more than six inches in length.

Doctors used the ultrasound method to locate the precise location of the objects, and removed them through small incisions in the skin. There were no cases of infection or other complications, Dr. Shiels said.

“Radiologists are in a unique position to be the first to detect self-embedding disorder, make the appropriate diagnosis, and mobilize the health-care system for early and effective intervention and treatment,” he added.

However, this new trend is worrisome and must be stopped as soon as possible, he warned. “But parents often don’t see the behavior evolving…Adolescence seems to be increasingly more difficult for some children to handle.” Parents need to recognize the problem and get their child into therapy quickly.

This is the first ever study on self-embedding disorder and shows it is clearly worse than self-cutting. More exactly, 90 percent of the teens choosing to mutilate themselves this way have “suicidal ideations.”