Homicide followed by suicide: 5 cases report
Suggested citation:
Golenkov AV. [Homicide followed by suicide: 5 cases report]. Rossiiskii psikhiatricheskii zhurnal [Russian Journal of Psychiatry]. 2017;(2):12-16. Russian
Post-homicide suicides (PHS) have not been sufficiently described in the Russian literature. The goal ofthe study – is to analyze and describe 5 cases of PHS, which had been committed in the Chuvash Republic.For the 9-year period between 2008 and 2016 we have identified 5 cases of PHS among the postmortem forensic psychiatric assessments (3 females and 2 males). The age of these individuals ranged between 29 and 51 (the mean was 38.3 years ± 7.3). A questionnaire has been filled out for each of the examinees. It included the clinical indices, social-demographic ones, and the characteristics of their offense. All 5 examinees suffered from mental disorders (schizophrenia – 2, alcohol dependence syndrome – 2, depressive disorder – 1). In 4 cases the examinees were found to be not criminally responsible. In most cases the victims were children (5 out of 7 cases), killed by their parents (mothers in 2 out of 3 cases). The factors, which contributed to PHS, were the poor familial relationships, psychologically traumatizing situations, financial difficulties, and less frequently – alcohol abuse. The timely identification of mental disorders and their adequate treatment may be the effective ways to prevent PHS.
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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.24411/1560-957X-2017-1%25x
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