TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2000//
TI  - Brain weight in suicide. An exploratory study
JO  - British journal of psychiatry
A1  - Salib, E.
A1  - Tadros, G.
SP  - 257
EP  - 261
VL  - 177
IS  - 
N2  - BACKGROUND: There is little available literature on the effect of suicide methods on brain weight. AIMS: To explore variations in post-mortem brain weight in different methods of fatal self-harm (FSH) and in deaths from natural causes. <br><br>METHOD: A review of a sample of coroners' records of elderly persons (60 and above). Verdicts of suicide, misadventure and open verdicts were classified as FSH. Post-mortem brain weight for 142 FSH victims and 150 victims of unexpected, sudden or unexplained death due to natural causes, and from various methods of FSH, were compared. <br><br>RESULTS: Brain weight of victims of FSH was significantly higher than of those who died of natural causes (P < 0.01); brain weights in both groups were within the normal range for this age group. There was no significant difference in brain weight between different methods of FSH (P > 0.05). <br><br>CONCLUSIONS: The findings require critical examination and further research, to include data from younger age groups. A regional or national suicide neuropathological database could be set up if all victims of FSH underwent routine neurohistochemical post-mortem examination.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0007-1250
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1192/bjp.177.3.257
ID  - ref1
ER  -