Citation

Gamble SA, Talbot NL, Conner KR, Tu X, Franus N, Beckman AM, Ma Y, Duberstein PR. Arch. Suicide Res. 2007; 11(4): 321-326.

Affiliation

Department of Psychiatry, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, New York, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2007, International Academy of Suicide Research, Publisher Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/13811110701541988

PMID

17882619

Abstract

In post-mortem studies of suicide, informant sources are often relied upon to provide information to identify correlates of suicide and suicidal behavior. While previous research has shown that informants can supply reliable information about patients' recent stressful life events, it is unknown whether informants and patients provide concordant data about adverse early life experiences such as childhood sexual abuse. This study examined concordance between patient and informant reports of childhood sexual abuse in a sample of depressed patients 50 years and older. Patients and informants (n = 88 pairs) independently responded to items from the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire. Informants' reports of patients' severe sexual abuse histories were in high agreement with patients' reports; concordance was significantly lower, however, for milder forms of sexual abuse. These findings demonstrate the feasibility and limitations of collecting sensitive information about patients' early life experiences in research designs utilizing informant report, including postmortem studies of suicide that use psychological autopsy methodology.

Language: en