[Suicide after craniocerebral trauma].

In the legal judgment of suicidal cases following brain trauma the emphasis is put on the causality between trauma and suicide on the one hand, and on the question of free determination of intent, on the other hand. These problems are investigated empirically in the present study and an explanatory model based on act theory is proposed. At first, an annual sample of suicides in the region of Salzburg is put through a multidimensional diagnosis (suicidal axis syndrome-Mitterauer 1981). The suicidal axis syndrome consists of the following three components: 1. Suicide attempts in the history 2. Diagnosis of exogenous or (and) endogenous brain dysfunction 3. Suicide-positive history. Of a total of 130 exactly interpretable suicide cases there were 16 cases with a brain trauma followed by an organic brain syndrome in the history. Of these, 11 had announced their suicidal attempts previously and 4 presented with a suicide-positive family history. Although the assessment of suicide in the family history is difficult due to insufficient information, the suicidal axis syndrome was definitely confirmed in 4 suicide cases. We attempt to show that at least in those cases with a suicidal axis syndrome, the free determination of intent is to be negated at the moment of suicide, and that due to the existing chronic brain syndrome a causality between trauma and suicide seems to be given in a neuropsychiatric sense.