[Suicide notes and their importance to suicide research. The representativeness of suicide note writers].
BACKGROUND
Suicide notes provide direct information from suicide victims and often are written shortly before the suicide act. An important question is whether those who write such notes are representative for suicide victims who do not.


METHODS
A consecutive series of suicides investigated at the Department of Forensic Medicine in Vienna from April 2002 to March 2003 was examined for the existence of suicide notes. Note writers were compared with non-note writers according to the variables age, sex, family status, occupational status, psychiatric care, suicide motive, and method.


CONCLUSIONS
Suicide victims who leave suicide notes do not differ statistically significantly from non-note-leavers in sex, age, family status, psychiatric care, motive, or method. This means they are representative for all suicide victims concerning important demographic factors.
Eisenwort
B
B
Zentrum für Public Health, Institut für Med. Psychologie, Medizinische Universität Wien. brigitte.eisenwort@meduniwien.ac.at
Berzlanovich
A
A
Willinger
U
U
Eisenwort
G
G
Lindorfer
S
S
Sonneck
G
G
D017677:Age Distribution; D001317:Austria / Q000453:epidemiology; D001319:Authorship; D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D005555:Forensic Psychiatry / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D033182:Intention; D008297:Male; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods*; D012307:Risk Factors; D017678:Sex Distribution; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013405:Suicide / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014956:Writing; D000092864:Suicide Prevention