Talk:Ochanthuruth

Famous persons from Ochanthuruth

There have been persons of eminence who have made a mark in several fields in the society. Contributors can suggest names. For instance, Professor L M Pylee, who was Minister for Education in the pre-independent Cochin State. Archbishop Joseph Attippetty, the first Indian Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Verapoly and founder of several institutions in Kerala including St Albert's College, Ernakulam and St Paul's College, Kalamassery. Prof: M V Augustine, Gandhian and social activist. Bendict Kuruppassery- a scientist who have bagged a number of accolades in scientific inventions.There are several others too who would merit the attention and grateful remembrance in this encyclopedia.

Asarthose (talk) 16:12, 29 October 2009 (UTC)

Psychiatric Autopsy - Tool for Death Investigation

Psychiatric Autopsy - Tool for Death Investigation
When the nature and cause of death remain unknown from the immediate and apparent features of death, especially due to the lack of direct evidence to fix whether the unnatural death is accidental, suicide or murder, the Psychological or Psychiatric Autopsy can be employed as an effective tool for death investigation.

The ‘Psychological Autopsy’ is a procedure for investigating a person’s death by reconstructing what the person thought, felt and did preceding his or her death. This reconstruction is based upon information gathered from personal documents, police reports, medical and corner’s records and face to face interview with families, friends and others who had contact with the person before the death.1 While a medico-legal autopsy examines the body of the deceased, a psychological autopsy considers the mental state of the deceased. When there is conflict or absence of leads which indicate the circumstances pointing towards more than one possibility of mode of death, if said more specifically, the manner of death is suspicious and giving divergent indications, this tool of investigation can be employed with team work of Forensic Psychiatrists, Forensic Pathologists, Toxicologists and Psychologists to compile information about the behaviours and motive to distinguish among accident, homicide and suicide as possible modes of death. The theory underlying the concept of psychological autopsy is that most suicide victims communicate their intentions in some way. While the technique was developed as a clinical tool for predicting suicide risk, its forensic application has been the retrospective determination of the cause or circumstances surrounding a death. This branch of investigation was originally developed by Edwin Shneidman and his colleagues in Los Angeles Suicide Prevention Center during 1950’s. The Psychological Autopsy Methodology2 involves two main elements 1. Extensive interviews of family members and other close intimates; and 2. Collecting all possible medical, Psychiatric and other relevant documents of the deceased. Psychological autopsies review the specifics of the death and the decedent for suicide risk factors. Shneidman for example, has identified 14 areas for inquiry in psychological autopsy studies. These areas include: 1. Identifying information (e.g., age, marital status, religious practices, occupation) 2. Details of the death 3. Brief outline of the victim’s history (e.g., previous suicide attempts) 4. Death history of the victim’s family (e.g., family history of suicide, affective illness) 5. Description of the personality and lifestyle of the victim 6. The victim’s typical pattern of reaction to stress, emotional upsets, and periods of disequilibrium 7. Recent stressors, tensions, or anticipations of troubles 8. The role of alcohol and drugs in the overall lifestyle of the victim and his/her death 9. The nature of the victim’s interpersonal relationship 10. Changes in the victim’s habits and routines before death (e.g., hobbies, appetite, sexual patterns, and other life routines) 11. Information relating to the life side of the victim (e.g., upswings, successes, plans) 12. Assessment of intention 13. Rating of lethality 14. Reaction of informants to the victim’s death, and 15. Any comments or special features of the case. The information collected from the interviews could provide relevant information in an attempt to reconstruct the deceased’s background, personal relationships, personality traits and lifestyle. Psychological autopsies have proved helpful in identifying and explicating proximate causation, determining the role of a variety of factors in bringing about a suicide death. The usual sources of psychological information3 are 1. Suicide Note:- Interpretation of suicide note is important to confirm suicide or abetment of suicide or homicides or to identify causation. The correct interpretation of suicide’s note requires handwriting expert to confirm that note is written by the offenders/subject as its contents may reveal the following:- (a) Intention :- It is reflected form suicide note that the individual has billed himself. This intention is strengthened by history of previous attempts. (b) Physical illness :- The changes in handwriting; for example tremors (due to alcoholism, drug poisoning, fear or anxiety ) or changes of size of letters ( gradually becoming small due to intake of antipsychotic drug) may indicate presented of physical illness. (c) Psychiatric illness :- The contents of suicide note may indicate the presence of psychiatric disorder; for example schizophrenia. (d):- Situational Factor :- Whether the individual is threatened or suicide note; is dictated. Ex: good content by an illiterate individual, repeated cutting or suicide pact [suicide note signed by more than one individual or simple contents in different notes], or suicide intent of another person or abetment of suicide. 2. School/College Records:- Information such as change in academic performance or recent absences and tardiness. 3. Medical Records:- Family history, visits to physician, illness and medication taken and referrals to specialists 4. Police Records: - May give the information about his previous attempts of suicide and involvement in anti-social activities. The psychological autopsy is accomplished through reconstruction of the decedent’s character or personality from information gained from a variety of sources. This reconstructed character or personality is then used to make a retrospective prediction of the likelihood of the decedent’s having committed a particular act 4. If the data collected and the analysis of same conclude that there is no indication of suicide, the possibility of the decedent to commit suicide shall be ruled out. Advantages of psychological autopsy:- By collecting information from the people who are maintaining direct or indirect interactions, the personality of the decedent is most accurately described and assessed, which becomes the most significant inputs to evaluate the thought process and traits of the decedent prior to death. The evaluation involves the understanding of intention and motive, if it is a suicide. If the autopsy negates the suicide, it shall definitely be a step stone for the investigators to proceed with the investigation of death by excluding the theory of suicide in the incident. So the psychological autopsy provide a firm indication to which directions death investigation, shall be proceeded. Though psychological autopsy can be taken an effective tool for suspicious death investigation, it is not free from disadvantages and limitations. Availability and selection of experts/professionals who are potential by holding research oriented experience is always an important hurdle to get over. The professional ethics and physician - patient privileges are always a difficult barrier to get valuable and important inputs. The end process of the psychological autopsy is the retrospective prediction whether the subject has committed suicide or not. But this process is being carried out by the experts who had no occasion to meet and interview the decedent in his life time. The experts gather the information from third parties and documents, which could be considered as hearsay information which diminishes the evidentiary value. There is no standardised operational method to derive conclusions out of the information collected during the course of psychological autopsy. It has to be drawn up by the professional much based on his experience to correlate the inputs. The psychological autopsy is one of the effective tools in death investigation. It could act as a firm step stone for the investigation into the suspicious unnatural death where direct evidence is not available. A systematically carried out psychological autopsy would definitely provide more scientific and accurate leads in death investigation.

In India, the employment of this branch of Forensic Psychiatry is less used. On 12.02.2016 the Chief Judicial Magistrate Court, Ernakulam, Kerala has directed the Central Bureau of Investigation to employ Forensic Psychological Autopsy in the death of investigation of Qazi C.M.Abdulla Maulavi of Chembarika. Thereafter in Sunanda Pushkar Death case the Special Team for investigation has employed the Psychiatric Autopsy and concluded that it was a suicide. Another incident of employing this tool was in the Burari Death case in Delhi, in which 11 members of a family were found dead by hanging on 01/07/2018. The questions in these cases are to be answered was whether it is a suicide or homicide. The availability of experts in this area including experienced suicidologists is a concern of the time, as numerous reports are there regarding the increasing incidents of suicide. So there shall be sufficient concern for the state of establish research centres and institutions concentrated in this branch of forensic psychiatry. Another aspect of concern is the extension of rigor to the hearsay rule in accepting the information and conclusions in psychological autopsy. The opinion evidence given by the experts who conducted the systematic psychological autopsy shall be given due weightage taking the purview under Section 45 of the Evidence Act,1872.