EPA-1203 – Assessing the relationship between the level satisfaction and time passed. A psychological autopsy study

Abstract

Introduction The psychological autopsy aims to reach an understanding on the psychological aspects of a specific death. Interview of relatives and friends require sensitivity to their emotional condition. Since Edwin Shneidman started to use this method, one of the most important questions is when to arrange the interview. Objective To evaluate family and friends satisfaction with the interview, in order to determinate when is the best moment to settle the psychological interview. Methods We studied the results of 271 suicides psychological interviews, and analyzed two variables: the satisfaction (measured using rating scale from zero to ten) and the time passed since the suicide. Results The overall satisfaction was high (8´75), and the average time that we lasted to carry out the interview was 8´54 months. When we analyzed the satisfaction through the months, we did not find differences in the values of the rating scale. Download : Download full-size image Discussion Although the best time to contact friends and relatives has been established to be between 2 and 6 months after the suicide event, in our study we did not find any relation between the timing and the satisfaction. Conclusion The results of this study show that the fact of when is the best moment to settle the psychological autopsy interview is still unclear. A better konwlodge about this could improve the satisfaction of relatives and friends with the psychologial autopsy.