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Evolution of the Psychological Autopsy: Fifty Years of Experience at the Los Angeles County Chief Medical Examiner‐Coroner's Office
Author(s) -
Botello Timothy,
Noguchi Thomas,
Sathyavagiswaran Lakshmanan,
Weinberger Linda E.,
Gross Bruce H.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
journal of forensic sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.715
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1556-4029
pISSN - 0022-1198
DOI - 10.1111/1556-4029.12138
Subject(s) - coroner , medical examiner , autopsy , medicine , suicide prevention , psychiatry , poison control , family medicine , medical emergency , pathology
Abstract The origin of the psychological autopsy was in the late 1950s and the result of a collaboration between the L os A ngeles C ounty Chief Medical Examiner‐Coroner's Office and the L os A ngeles S uicide P revention C enter. It was conceptualized as a thorough retrospective analysis of the decedent's state of mind and intention at the time of death. It was used initially in “equivocal” deaths where the manner of death was possibly either suicide or accident. Later, it was used in cases where a party (primarily family members) protested the Medical Examiner‐Coroner's suicide determination. Over the past 25 years, the University of Southern C alifornia Institute of Psychiatry, Law, and Behavioral Science has served as the psychiatric/psychological consultants to the Coroner's Department. Research findings, the use of this approach in high‐profile cases, and the most recent manner in which the psychological autopsy is conducted are discussed.