An unusual death of a masochist: Accident or suicide?

Addiction to self-strangulation: a case-report

“…Much research on asphyxiophilia has been done by forensic scientists after death, in particular because asphyxiophilia is generally a secretive practice. All death reported are men, with a mean age of 37 years old [21], and in many cases the death scene shows evidence of sexual staging [5]. These studies also reported that this paraphilia (AEA) is often associated with other paraphilia (for example traveling, exhibitionism…) indicating a poverty of engagement in affective relationships and that sexual-enhancing substances are also often found on the death scene [21].…”

“…The physiopathology of autoerotic asphyxia is the deprivation of oxygen towards the central nervous system leading to a rapid dysregulation of the central inhibitory mechanisms that control sexual activity. It results an heightening of the senses associated by some as erotic hallucinations [20,21]. In the case of Mr. B, while the pleasure induced by hypoxia is present, no other criteria for sexual masochism disorder or any other paraphilic behaviors were reported or observed during the hospitalization.…”

“…All death reported are men, with a mean age of 37 years old [21], and in many cases the death scene shows evidence of sexual staging [5]. These studies also reported that this paraphilia (AEA) is often associated with other paraphilia (for example traveling, exhibitionism…) indicating a poverty of engagement in affective relationships and that sexual-enhancing substances are also often found on the death scene [21]. Mr B. began its irst strangulation activity during adolescence in the presence of school friends before any sexual pleasure seeking behavior.…”

Sexual disorders and crime

“…A case of autoerotic asphyxia was investigated in order to confirm the hypothesis of accidental death during a masochistic practice. Fatal masochistic asphyxia is a rare phenomenon and may be caused by the malfunction of the apparatus used to provide sexual pleasure -as happened in this case [8].…”

Letter to the Editor-A Revisitation of the Most Common Methods of Autoerotic Activity Leading to Death Based on the New Standardized Classification of Asphyxia

“…Atypical methods of autoerotic activity on the other hand include electrocution, overdressing/body wrapping, foreign body insertion, and atypical asphyxia (1). This being humbly said, this review study is a key paper on the topic of autoerotic deaths and has been regularly cited since its publication in 2006 (2–15). It should be pointed out however that the recent standardization of the classification of asphyxia (16) now impacts on these conclusions.…”