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Abstract
The psychological autopsy approach to studying suicide is becoming an increasingly used research method. It presents considerable methodological problems. In order to assist future researchers in this field and to help readers assess reports of psychological autopsy studies the authors have reviewed these issues on the basis of their own experience and those of other workers. The areas covered include research design, identification of subjects, sources of information and the particular issues concerned with approaching relatives and other informants, choice and recruitment of controls, the difficulties of conducting psychological autopsy interviews with relatives, problems for interviewers, the selection of appropriate measures to obtain information, and achieving valid and reasonably reliable conclusions from diverse information sources.
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“In addition, there are several limitations inherent to the psychological autopsy approach,23–25 including issues relating to the choice (and selective non-response) of control subjects and the reliance on proxy reports—the latter being prone to recall bias and measurement error.”
From Risk factors for suicide in adults: systematic review and meta-analysis of psychological autopsy studies (2022) · cites this paper as [23]
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Psychological autopsy studies of suicide: a systematic review.
CAVANAGH, J. T. O., CARSON, A. J., SHARPE, M., & LAWRIE, S. M. (2003) · Psychological Medicine · doi:10.1017/s0033291702006943 · Cited by 2,207
“395 type of intensive approach not only provides direct information but also aids the interpretation of studies employing other techniques (Hawton et al. 1998).”
ResultPsychiatric diagnoses in 3275 suicides: a meta-analysis
Arsenault-Lapierre, G., Kim, C., & Turecki, G. (2004) · BMC Psychiatry · doi:10.1186/1471-244x-4-37 · Cited by 985
Risk factors for suicide in China: a national case-control psychological autopsy study
Phillips, M. R., Yang, G., Zhang, Y., Wang, L., Ji, H., & Zhou, M. (2002) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(02)11681-3 · Cited by 928
Sex-specific transcriptional signatures in human depression
Labonté, B., Engmann, O., Purushothaman, I., Menard, C., Wang, J., Tan, C., Scarpa, J. R., Moy, G., Loh, Y.-H. E., Cahill, M., et al. (2017) · Nature Medicine · doi:10.1038/nm.4386 · Cited by 748
Risk factors for suicide in later life
Conwell, Y., Duberstein, P. R., & Caine, E. D. (2002) · Biological Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/s0006-3223(02)01347-1 · Cited by 701
“Psychological autopsy (PA) is the term used to describe the method by which information is gathered retrospectively about suicides from relatives, friends, caregivers, others familiar with the decedent, and relevant records (Hawton et al 1998) for use in case control studies.”
Metadata
- Authors
- Hawton, K. E., Appleby, L., Platt, S., Foster, T., Cooper, J., Malmberg, A., & Simkin, S.
- Affiliations
- Warneford Hospital (GB)
- Venue
- Journal of Affective Disorders
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 1998-09
- Volume
- 50
- Issue
- 2-3
- Pages
- 269-276
- ISSN
- 0165-0327 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W1732968872
- Cited by
- 324
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2025: 5 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 9 · 2017: 10 · 2016: 13 · 2015: 18 · 2014: 11 · 2013: 18 · 2012: 35
- FWCI
- 9.73
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Affective Disorders (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Research Explorer (The University of Manchester) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Suicide and Self-Harm Studies
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Homicide, Infanticide, and Child Abuse
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health
- Keywords
- psychological autopsy, suicide, research design, informant selection, control selection, interview validity, reliability statistics, information sources
- MeSH terms
- Autopsy, Cause of Death, Data Collection, Family Relations, Humans, Research Design, Suicide
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