TY - JOUR
TI - Differences Between Suicide Victims Who Leave Notes and Those Who Do Not
A 2-Year Study in Greece
AU - Paraschakis, Antonios
AU - Michopoulos, Ioannis
AU - Douzenis, Athanassios
AU - and Christodoulou, Christos
AU - Koutsaftis, Filippos
AU - Lykouras,
AU - Lefteris
JO - Crisis: The Journal of Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention
PY - 2012
VL - 33
TODO - 6
SP - 344-349
PB - Hogrefe & Huber Publishers
SN - 0227-5910
TODO - 10.1027/0227-5910/a000150
TODO - suicide victim; suicide note
TODO - Background: Whether differences exist between those who do leave a
suicide note and those who do not has not yet been comprehensively
answered. Leaving a suicide note is not a random phenomenon: A minority,
varying between 3-42%, of all suicide victims leave a note. Aims: To
compare the group of suicide victims who leave notes with the ones who
do not, using data from the Athens Department of Forensic Medicine, the
largest in Greece. Methods: We examined sex, age, nationality, religious
beliefs, marital and residential status, history of prior psychiatric
disorder and psychiatric attempt(s), suicide method, physical disease,
recent hospitalization, and existence of suicide notes. We completed
psychological autopsy questionnaires after phone interviews with
relatives of the suicide victims of a 2-year period (November
2007-October 2009). Results: Note writers, 26.1% of our sample,
differed in the following: they died by hanging or shooting (p = .007),
had no history of psychiatric illness (p < .001) or recent (i.e., within
12 months of the suicide) psychiatric hospitalization (p = .005).
Conclusions: Our study showed that there are indeed differences between
suicide victims who leave a note and those who do not. We also suggest
some explanations for these differences, which could represent a
valuable starting point for future research on this topic.
ER -