Suicide Among Children and Adolescents in a Province of Turkey

Abstract:  Despite well-documented increases in completed suicides among children, accurate knowledge of the characteristics of these suicides is very limited. The aim of this study was to investigate general characteristics of suicide among children and adolescents in the province of Istanbul and to evaluate obtained results in the light of the literature. Data were collected from autopsy records of the Morgue Department of Institute of Forensic Medicine, Istanbul. General characteristics of completed suicides among children and adolescents between 2001 and 2005 were retrospectively reviewed. The study included 176 suicides aged 9–19 years. The overwhelming majority of the suicides (92%) were aged 15–19 years. More than half of the suicides (60%) were male. The most frequent means of suicide was hanging (55%) followed by firearms (20%) and jump or descent from height (15%).     

Heroin Overdose Deaths and Heroin Purity Between 1990 and 2000 in Istanbul,Turkey*

Abstract: Turkey has continuously experienced problems with abuse of, and addiction to, opium derivatives. In this study, we analyzed the relationship between heroin overdose deaths and the characteristics of seized opium derivatives. Data were gathered from the Council of Forensic Medicine of the Ministry of Justice in Istanbul from 1990 to 2000. There were 636 heroin‐related deaths during this period, 595 of which were classified as heroin overdose deaths. Mean crude and weighted heroin purities remained relatively constant and were calculated to be 46% (57–34%) and 51% (39–59%), respectively. The weight of heroin and the number of heroin seizures, but not the heroin purity, were significantly associated with the number of heroin‐related deaths. Prevention strategies are needed to reduce the number of deaths caused by overdoses in countries situated on drug trafficking routes. These strategies should focus on drug trafficking, by providing increased levels of, and support for, law enforcement, stopping the supply of precursor chemicals, and combating corruption among border officials.     

Social media video analysis methodology for sarin exposure

As social media becomes increasingly ubiquitous, many events are recorded and released on social media platforms, including chemical weapon attacks. We develop an objective tool in order to evaluate brief and unstructured social media videos for analysing sarin exposure from a civilian medical pathology perspective. We developed and validated this new questionnaire using a standardized procedure that includes content domain specification, item pool generation, content validity evaluation, a pilot study, and assessment of reliability and validity. In total, 51 sarin attacks and 48 matched videos were analysed. Cronbach’s α for all 20 items was 0.75, which indicates adequate internal reliability. The test–retest reliability was 0.96, which indicates good internal reliability. The inter-observer intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.97. After verifying sampling adequacy with the Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin measure and the factorability of the items with Barlett’s test of sphericity, a factor analysis was performed. According to the principal axis factoring, a six-factor solution explained 51.86% of the total variance. The receiver-operating characteristic curve analysis showed that the Video Score Questionnaire has a sensitivity of 0.817, a specificity of 0.478, and an efficiency of 65.3. Therefore, the Video Score Questionnaire is reliable and valid for evaluating sarin attacks from brief and unstructured social media videos.

Key points

• Chemical weapons are still used as a method of warfare.
• Social media videos are an important source of information.
• We developed a validated scale which can analyse sarin exposure in short and unstructured videos.

     

Preliminary quantitative investigation of postmortem adipocere formation

The accurate determination of postmortem interval (PMI) using the formation of adipocere presents a significant challenge to forensic scientists interested in determining the time of death. Several attempts have been made to determine the time since the occurrence of death. However, up to date, this has been difficult because previous approaches have been mainly qualitative, focusing on the later stages of degradation processes. This work presents preliminary results of an experimental model of postmortem adipocere formation using liquid chromatography. Three pig cadavers were submerged in distilled water, chlorinated water, and saline water. Fresh specimens resulting from the degradation in the subcutaneous fat were obtained from the pigs at two-week intervals for a period of ten weeks, and were subjected to chromatographic analysis. By correlating the ratio of the disappearance of hydrolyzed fatty acids with the formation of hydroxystearic and oxostearic acids after death, a simple, quantitative analytical method was developed for the determination of PMI. Experimental observation of the chemistry of adipocere formation indicated that adipocere can be formed only a few hours after an incidence of death and this continues until the saturation of oleic acid degradation after several weeks. Different time courses were obtained for cadavers immersed in distilled, chlorinated, and saline water, respectively. This work has not in any way solved the time since death problem. But it may be an approach to the problem that has not been adequately explored.     

A Domestic Violence Course For Medical Students: A Study on Its Effectiveness

International health institutions emphasize the necessity of including the topic of domestic violence which is accepted as a health problem worldwide, into the training of physicians. The fact that physicians should diagnose domestic violence victims who over the years were either neglected or overlooked is also mentioned. The present study aims to measure the effectiveness of the interactive domestic violence course given to Dokuz Eylul University Faculty of Medicine (DEUFM) Year V students, with tests implemented before and after the course. The same students were given the same test during Year VI (internship). The students’ average knowledge scores were found respectively as follows: pretest 78.66?±?10.54, second test 94.13?±?3.95 and third test 89.65?±?7.48. There was a statistically significant difference between tests’ average scores. It was observed that, after the course, 4 out of 19 students (21.1%) changed their answers from “no” to “yes” for the question “Have you ever been a victim of physical domestic violence?” A statistically significant difference was found between pre-course answers and the after course answers given to this question. This study showed that the course on domestic violence increased students’ knowledge level and awareness on this issue. Considering that average knowledge level will decrease over time and aiming to improve future physicians’ approach to domestic violence cases, addition of other interactive educational methods to Year V’s course program and proposal of an advanced training session to Year VI’s curriculum are being planned.     

The New Face of Terrorism in Turkey: Actor Unknown Political Murders

Abstract:  In this study, we have analyzed the temporal and spatial trends in actor unknown political murders in Turkey. A total of 1852 cases, defined as actor unknown political murders, occurred in Turkey between 1975 and 2006, with the peak years being 1980 and 1994. Three different time frames could be defined: 1975–1993, 1994–1999, and 2000–2006. During the first period, cases were common all over Turkey, but during the second and third periods, they were more frequent in metropolitan areas and in the southeast. Incidents occurring during the first period could be attributed to the struggle between right- and left-wing supporters, while most murders occurring during the second and third periods seem to have been related to Kurdish separatism. Although the most crucial factor in preventing actor unknown political murders is a politically stable atmosphere, forensics can also play an important role. Turkey needs to improve its forensic services to bring them in line with international standards, namely the Minnesota Protocol.