Estudio sobre la noción de “Autopsia psicológica” desde el enfoque bibliométrico

Abstract

A bibliographic review about the psychological autopsy concept in the 1966-2000 period is carried out, in order to contribute to the knowledge of suicidal behavior and to supply a systematic review of publications that comprise psychological autopsy as a method. This method implies a sociodemographic and biographic reconstruction of the period of time prior to commit suicide by means of psychobiographic studies and interviews to the suicide’s peers and family, in pursuit of isolating the characteristics common to them. The bibliometric methodology was used to carry out this paper since this methodology provides a systematic frame to analyze productivity, contributions and subjects of scientific publications, in the abovementioned period of time, that had psychological autopsy as their main subject. Finally, the most relevant conclusions are included emphasizing, in particular, the weight that adverse social conditions have on the probability of committing the suicidal act.