Low serum cholesterol in violent but not in non-violent suicide attempters

Serum lipid levels and suicidality among male patients with schizoaffective disorder

“…Our previous studies confirmed the role of cholesterol in suicidal behavior of patients diagnosed with different form of psychotic disorders (Marčinko et al, 2004(Marčinko et al, , 2005(Marčinko et al, , 2007. Some studies demonstrated that association of low cholesterol with suicide attempts was more pronounced among violent suicide attempters or those with a history of such attempts (Alvarez et al, 2000;Vevera et al, 2003;Kim and Myint, 2004;Marčinko et al, 2005). One study corroborated causative correlation between low cholesterol and violence in general (Golomb, 1998).…”

Serum lipid levels and suicidality: a meta-analysis of 65 epidemiological studies

“…In addition, when compared with healthy controls, patients with violent suicide attempts had much larger mean serum TC level differences than those with nonviolent suicide attempts. This result indicates that patients with violent suicide attempts had lower TC levels than those with nonviolent suicide attempts, as the individual studies 34,38,41,46 revealed. However, 1 study found there was no difference between patients with violent and nonviolent suicide attempts.…”

Cholesterol and suicide attempts: A prospective study of depressed inpatients

“…Comparisons of suicide attempters to well controls have yielded similar results (Gallerani et al, 1995;Alvarez et al, 1999;Sarchiapone et al, 2000;Atmaca et al, 2002b;Kim et al,, 2002;Tripodianakis et al, 2002;Lee and Kim, 2003). Some have found the association between low cholesterol and suicide attempts to be strongest among those with violent suicide attempts or with a history of such attempts (Alvarez et al, 2000;Bocchetta et al, 2001;Atmaca et al, 2003b;Vevera et al, 2003;Kim and Myint, 2004;Marcinko et al, 2005). Lower grey matter cholesterol has been demonstrated with violent suicide completers on autopsy (Lalovic et al, 2006) and it has even been suggested that a causal relationship exists between low cholesterol and violence in general (Golomb, 1998).…”