OBJECTIVE: We sought to establish whether low cholesterol concentration may be associated with a personal history of attempted suicide or a family history of completed suicide in psychiatric out-patients on maintenance lithium treatment, who represent a population at risk for suicide. METHOD: We retrospectively reviewed charts regarding 783 out-patients consecutively admitted to a lithium clinic from 1976 to 1999. Individual age- and gender-specific quartile of serum cholesterol concentration were correlated against personal lifetime suicide attempts and completed suicide in first-degree relatives. RESULTS: The proportion of men with a personal lifetime history of attempted suicide, especially if violent, and that of men with history of completed suicide in a first-degree relative were significantly higher among the group with cholesterol concentration in the lowest quartile compared to the group with cholesterol levels above the 25th percentile. CONCLUSION: Low cholesterol concentration should be studied further as a potential biological/genetic marker of suicide risk.
OBJECTIVE: We sought to establish whether low cholesterol concentration may be associated with a personal history of attempted suicide or a family history of completed suicide in psychiatric out-patients on maintenance lithium treatment, who represent a population at risk for suicide. METHOD: We retrospectively reviewed charts regarding 783 out-patients consecutively admitted to a lithium clinic from 1976 to 1999. Individual age- and gender-specific quartile of serum cholesterol concentration were correlated against personal lifetime suicide attempts and completed suicide in first-degree relatives. RESULTS: The proportion of men with a personal lifetime history of attempted suicide, especially if violent, and that of men with history of completed suicide in a first-degree relative were significantly higher among the group with cholesterol concentration in the lowest quartile compared to the group with cholesterol levels above the 25th percentile. CONCLUSION: Low cholesterol concentration should be studied further as a potential biological/genetic marker of suicide risk.
Authors: Marcela Segoviano-Mendoza; Manuel Cárdenas-de la Cruz; José Salas-Pacheco; Fernando Vázquez-Alaniz; Osmel La Llave-León; Francisco Castellanos-Juárez; Jazmín Méndez-Hernández; Marcelo Barraza-Salas; Ernesto Miranda-Morales; Oscar Arias-Carrión; Edna Méndez-Hernández Journal: BMC Psychiatry Date: 2018-01-15 Impact factor: 3.630