The psychological autopsy (PA) is a systematic method of assessing the psychological and contextual circumstances preceding suicide. The method requires interviews with one or more proxy respondents (i.e., informants) of suicide decedents. Procedural challenges that need to be addressed to conduct PA interviews are described in this article and…

There are high rates of suicide ideation and/or behavior in severely obese individuals. The potential contributors to suicide ideation in a sample of 334 severely obese bariatric surgery candidates was explored. Lack of college education, a history of suicide ideation and/or behavior, psychological distress, hopelessness, loneliness, history of…

Primary care providers were surveyed to determine how prepared they feel to address nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) among adolescents, their interest in training on NSSI, and factors associated with routinely asking about NSSI when providing health supervision. Participants included family medicine physicians ("n" = 260), pediatricians…

Edwin S. Shneidman (DOB: 1918-05-13; DOD: 2009-05-15) is a father of contemporary suicidology. His work reflects the intensive study of lives lived and deaths, especially suicides, and is the mirror to his mind. His contributions can be represented by five categories: psychological assessment, logic, Melville and Murray, suicide, and death. His…

The psychological autopsy (PA) is a systematic method to understand the psychological and contextual circumstances preceding suicide. The method requires interviews with one or more proxy respondents (i.e., informants) of decedents. The methodological challenges that need to be addressed when determining the content of these research interviews…

Data concerning 127 persons aged 35 years or above who died by suicide (as determined in consecutive cases by a Sydney coroner) were analyzed. Psychological autopsy (PA) interviews were conducted in 52 cases, and details were compared with the 75 cases where data were available only from coroner's files (CF). Most characteristics of the two groups…

The degree of ambiguity in the term "suicide attempt" was examined among 14 expert suicidologists, and 59 general mental health clinicians. The participants judged whether each of ten vignettes of actual adolescent self-harm behaviors was a suicide attempt. Low levels of agreement were found within each group, although agreement was better for the…

Interviewed 50 hospitalized suicide attempters and 57 professional caregivers they identified as having been consulted prior to attempts. Approximately one-half of patients directly disclosed suicidal symptoms or intentions, especially to mental health professionals. Few caregivers noted suicidal thinking or probed suicidal symptoms. Data suggest…

This psychological autopsy of the suicidal death of an adolescent Indian boy includes a brief family background, a history of his difficulties, and a report of his psychological evaluation. The report includes an analysis of the resources currently available in Indian communities. (Author)

Elaborates on standards of care for assessment, management, and treatment of hospitalized suicidal patients. Attempts to synthesize concepts of minimal standard of care with clinical risk management and clinical judgment. Points out areas of overlap and shows where optimum care diverges from legal standards of care. Tables differentiate…

Investigated ways in which clinicians (n=27) and parasuicidal student-patients (n=52) perceive several theoretical dimensions related to suicide: psychological pain, external pressures/stressors, agitation/emotional upsetness, self-regard, and hopelessness. Data suggest that clinicians and patients independently perceived most of these dimensions…

Presented 33 case histories of suicidal patients to crisis workers (N=19) for ratings of short- and long-term suicide risk. Ratings revealed considerable variability raising question about reliability of such global assessments. The variability, as measured by the standard deviation, was comparable between short-term and long-term ratings.…

Suicide proneness and self-destruction scales, together with measures of self-favorability and self-confidence, were administered to two samples (n=106 and n=213). It is suggested that women are self-destructive in passive ways, reflecting their lack of self-favorability and confidence and manifested by failure to react to everyday situations in…

Three studies were carried out to investigate the writings of suicidal people on the Internet, hypothesizing consistent findings to equivalent research of offline writing. In Study 1, suicidal persons' (n = 34) attributions as the cause of their condition, as expressed in their free online writing, were compared to those of emotionally distressed,…