Recent suicide attempts and serum lipid profile in subjects with mental disorders: A cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background: Subjects with mental disorders have a higher risk of suicide behaviors than the general population. So, to date, researchers have investigated some biomarkers possibly related to suicidality. Despite many studies have reported a possible relationship between low lipid serum levels and suicide attempt, conflicting results have emerged. Aim We investigated whether serum total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol and triglycerides are associated with recent suicide attempts in subjects with different mental disorders. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional study, including 593 consecutively admitted inpatients with schizophrenia spectrum, bipolar, major depressive, and personality disorders. Serum lipid levels were compared between subjects admitted for a recent suicide attempt and those without such recent history. Moreover, according to hypothesis that links impulsivity and violence with low serum lipid levels, the association between lipid levels and violent suicide attempt was assessed. Results We did not find any association of total and LDL cholesterol and triglycerides with suicide attempts, also considering diagnosis and suicide methods. In addition, a post-hoc analysis showed a trend toward significance (p=0.06) in the association between high cholesterol level (≥160mg/dL) and recent suicide attempt. Conclusions Our results do not support the hypothesis of association between lipid profiles and suicide attempts in subjects with different mental disorders. Further research is needed to clarify the role of biomarkers in suicidal behaviors.

The prevalence, metabolic disturbances and clinical correlates of recent suicide attempts in Chinese inpatients with major depressive disorder

“…While these findings make a strong case for an association between low total cholesterol level and suicidal behavior, other studies have reported no association between serum cholesterol and suicide [37–41], or association in the opposite direction [20, 42]. The first possible explanation for these inconsistent results may be due to different time frames for suicide among different studies.…”

“…Second, different definitions for suicide have been used in previous studies, including suicidal thoughts or ideation, plans, and death [20, 37, 42]. Third, in our current study we focused only on major depressive disorder, excluding those bipolar disorder [39], general population [20, 42] and other mental disorders [37, 38, 41], which are different from the previous studies. Fourth, other associated factors with suicide attempts were not included in most of previous studies, while our current study included several new clinical and psychological factors.…”

Association of serum uric acid levels with suicide risk in female patients with major depressive disorder: a comparative cross-sectional study

“…Notably, the present study showed that serum UA levels significantly decreased in only MDD patients with suicide risk, and not in those without suicide risk. More recent evidence indicates that UA levels have a strong negative association with the severity of depressive symptoms [44,50], while depression severity is one of most important risk factors for suicide [51,52].…”

Comparison of blood lipid profile/thyroid function markers between unipolar and bipolar depressed patients and in depressed patients with anhedonia or suicidal thoughts

“…For instance, some studies fail to identify any correlation between serum lipids level and depression (Deisenhammer et al, 2004; Tanskanen et al, 2000; McCallum et al, 1994). Other studies did not find any association between suicidality and lipid profile in major depressive disorder (Bartoli et al, 2017a; Capuzzi et al, 2018). Other reports suggest that depression is associated with higher serum cholesterol level (Moreira et al, 2017; Nakao & Yano, 2004; Ledochowski et al, 2003).…”