Interviewing significant others by telephone as part of a modified psychologic autopsy

In suicidology the psychologic autopsy has become an important tool in whic h interviews with close relatives play an important role. The usual approac h has been a face-to-face interview quite a long time after the suicide, of ten with a prolonged contact period including letters and telephone calls b efore the actual interview. This paper describes an alternative approach us ing a telephone interview without previous contact and rather soon after th e suicide. One or several informants were contacted in 100 consecutive case s of suicide. The mean time from suicide to interview was 32 days (range, 6 -198). The informants' reactions were mainly positive (n = 43) or neutral ( n = 35). According to our experiences from this investigation, the best tim e to approach an intended informant is 2-3 weeks after the suicide. The str aightforward contact without many arrangements around the investigation wor ked out well. Psychologic autopsy by phone deserves a position as an altern ative investigation method in its own right.