Citation

Banchini A, Schirripa ML, Anzillotti L, Cecchi R. Leg. Med. (Elsevier) 2017; 29: 62-67.

Affiliation

Institute of Legal Medicine, University of Parma, Via A. Gramsci 14, Parma, Italy. Electronic address: rossana.cecchi@unipr.it.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, Japanese Society of Legal Medicine, Publisher Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.legalmed.2017.10.005

PMID

29073533

Abstract

Complex suicide is performed using more harmful methods, simultaneously or consecutively. In these cases, the distinction between suicide and homicide represents a challenge for forensic pathologists. In literature, complex suicide is divided in two subgroups: "planned complex suicide" or "unplanned complex suicide" depending from forensic features and often related to psychiatric variables. Aim of this study was to show the casuistry of complex suicide in Parma's Forensic service analyzing, for each case, the forensic medical problems (type and site of lesions on the body), and the supplementary data [Police's inspection report, toxicological analysis and psychiatric anamnesis (when available)], trying, through a multidisciplinary approach, to determine a possible correlation between the victim's mood and suicide's method chosen, whether planned or unplanned. Our results showed the importance of all the elements collected on the crime scene to distinguish suicide from homicide, and the correlation between bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder and schizophrenia with unplanned complex suicide (because of the impulsiveness), and major depression disorder and anxiety disorder with planned complex suicide. Being able to understand the causes behind this extreme gesture may become important not only for forensic pathologists and judicial authority, but also, and above all, for the family as well.

Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Language: en

Keywords

Complex suicide; Fall from the height; Forensic pathology; Hanging; Psychiatric anamnesis; Stab and cut wounds