Citation

Grznár M. Psychiatr. 2015; 19(4): 190-196.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, Tigis S R O)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Psychological autopsy is a method dedicated to evaluate information about individual suicides. It analyses interviews with relatives and near ones of a suicide victim and all available written documents concerning his/her life, health state and especially mental health. One of its goals is to perform a post mortem diagnostics of mental health. The first psychological autopsies were conducted at the end of 1950s in USA and nowadays they are used globally. The greatest contribution of psychological autopsies is the answer to the question of relationship between suicides and mental disorders which are present in 90% in cases of suicides compared with 27% in controls composed of common population. Lately there are trends in use of psychological autopsies towards specification of the research focus, cultural differentiation and use in new areas of research. The instruments of the measurement of psychiatric variables are highly standardized with acceptable results of validity and reliability tests with exception of personality disorders. Standardization of measurement of psychosocial variables remains a future challenge.

Language: cs

Keywords

United States; human; mental health; suicide; Suicide; autopsy; Suicidality; interview; Suicide prevention; Psychological autopsy; mental disease; victim; personality disorder; cultural factor; health status; methodology; reliability; standardization; Article; validity; psychological autopsy