Citation

Giuliani B, Perrone L, De Caprariis L, Tridente C, Foia MG. Neurologia Psichiatria Scienze Umane 1997; 17(1): 77-94.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1997, Il Pensiero scientifico editore)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

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Abstract

The authors will report the findings of a research group on suicide. The aims of the project are the identification of possible parameters relating to the prediction and prevention of suicide. The project itself took on a number of forms. First of all, the authors approached patients at the Cardarelli Hospital in Naples recovering from suicide attempts. The Questionnaire utilised turned out, however, to be inadequate and of insufficient penetration. They subsequently limited their research to the Psychiatric Clinic in Naples, investigating both patients recovering from suicide attempts and those whose case histories contained such episodes. The aim was to set up direct meetings with those patients with were most easily contactable. Consequently, the research was extended to take in all patients accepted by the Clinic over the previous five years. Finally, they followed the route mapped out by the last messages left by the subjects, in an attempt to construct an explanation for the gesture, as shown in the suicide notes. The authors underline the extent to which the research failed to produce concrete and definite results; in the same way, the statistical investigation also produced indifferent results from the point of view of reliability. The authors conclude by suggesting that better understanding of suicide, and even its prevention, is linked to rapid and timely intervention: for example that of being able to identify semantic signals relating to the act of suicide; or in the case of other signs materialising from the notes with the benefit of hindsight and in the absence of the subject.

Language: it