Psychological autopsy: a useful tool in the characterization of suicide

Autopsia psicológica: una herramienta útil en la caracterización del suicidio

Published 2016-12-21


https://doi.org/10.30554/archmed.16.2.1067.2016
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Vol. 16 No. 2
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Cañón Buitrago, S. C., Garcés Palacios, S., Echeverry Díaz, J., Bustos Gonzales, E., Pérez Uribe, V., & Aristizabal Lopez, M. A. (2016). Psychological autopsy: a useful tool in the characterization of suicide. Archivos De Medicina (Manizales), 16(2), 410-421. https://doi.org/10.30554/archmed.16.2.1067.2016
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Cañón Buitrago, S. C., Garcés Palacios, S., Echeverry Díaz, J., Bustos Gonzales, E., Pérez Uribe, V., & Aristizabal Lopez, M. A. (2016). Psychological autopsy: a useful tool in the characterization of suicide. Archivos De Medicina (Manizales), 16(2), 410-421. https://doi.org/10.30554/archmed.16.2.1067.2016

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Sandra Constanza Cañón Buitrago
Sofía Garcés Palacios
Jessica Echeverry Díaz
Estefania Bustos Gonzales
Valentina Pérez Uribe
Mario Andres Aristizabal Lopez
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Suicide generates a huge impact on the lives of people and society, because the deceased person leaves traces of emotionality in the environment; many of those traces are highly subjective and complex to determine. Psychological Autopsy is a tool that allows understanding the suicide phenomenon and everything surrounding it, starting on the process of making the decision until suicide. This tool is currently used in many countries for providing a new perspective on forensic pathology and forensic science, also helps to develop a retrospective of the life of the deceased, their patterns of behavior, personality, and more specifically prior mental state, in order to define the cause and manner of death, trying to decipher the reasons for the suicide that in most on the cases are doubtful or completely wrong. That is why the Psychological autopsy is very useful, because it provides information in order to create suicide profiles, that in the future will help in the early detection of risk factors and reduce deaths from suicide.

 

This topic review has as an objective to show the usefulness of Psychological Autopsy in different fields, in order to increase its use, modify or change the rate on the scene and clarify the death circumstances.

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