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Suicide attempt by jumping: a study of gonadal axis hormones in male suicide attempters versus men who fell by accident.
Psychiatry Res. 2009 Nov 30; 170(1):82-5.PR

Abstract

Low plasma total testosterone (T) levels may influence the sense of well-being and produce depressive symptomatology, increasing the risk of suicide. In a previous study, we reported reduced serum T levels in male psychiatric patients after a suicide attempt. The reduction was more pronounced in subjects who used violent attempt methods, and we discussed the possible influence of stress of hospitalization, serious medical condition and treatment. In order to minimize the influence of such factors, we compared in this study the levels of plasma sex hormones of 15 psychiatric patients (10 suffering from schizophrenia and 5 from depression) who had attempted suicide by jumping with those of a group of 18 male subjects who were hospitalized after accidentally falling from a high height. Compared with a healthy control group of 40 males, both accident and attempt groups had lower T levels. The attempt group showed a trend toward lower T levels compared with levels in the accident group. In the accident group, luteinizing hormone (LH) levels were elevated compared with levels in healthy controls, indicating a normal function of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis. This was not the case for the attempt group, where low T levels were not accompanied by increases in LH. Cortisol and prolactin were similarly elevated in both patient groups, but were not related to the low T levels. The results indicate that male psychiatric patients who attempt suicide by violent methods may have low total plasma T levels, possibly due to a dysfunction of the HPG axis at the hypothalamic-pituitary level. Monitoring HPG axis function in future studies could prove to be a predictor of suicide at least for male psychiatric attempters, and could lead to preventive strategies.

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Authors+Show Affiliations

Markianos M
Laboratory of Clinical Neurochemistry, Eginition Hospital, Athens University Medical School, Vas. Sophias 74, Athens, 11528, Greece. markian@otenet.gr
Tripodianakis J
No affiliation info available
Istikoglou C
No affiliation info available
Rouvali O
No affiliation info available
Christopoulos M
No affiliation info available
Papageorgopoulos P
No affiliation info available
Seretis A
No affiliation info available

MeSH

Accidental FallsAdultAge FactorsAgedCorticosteroneDepressive DisorderHumansMaleMiddle AgedPituitary Hormones, AnteriorSchizophreniaSchizophrenic PsychologyStress, PsychologicalSuicide, AttemptedTestosterone

Pub Type(s)

Journal Article

Language

eng

PubMed ID

19781790

Citation

Markianos, Manolis, et al. "Suicide Attempt By Jumping: a Study of Gonadal Axis Hormones in Male Suicide Attempters Versus Men Who Fell By Accident." Psychiatry Research, vol. 170, no. 1, 2009, pp. 82-5.
Markianos M, Tripodianakis J, Istikoglou C, et al. Suicide attempt by jumping: a study of gonadal axis hormones in male suicide attempters versus men who fell by accident. Psychiatry Res. 2009;170(1):82-5.
Markianos, M., Tripodianakis, J., Istikoglou, C., Rouvali, O., Christopoulos, M., Papageorgopoulos, P., & Seretis, A. (2009). Suicide attempt by jumping: a study of gonadal axis hormones in male suicide attempters versus men who fell by accident. Psychiatry Research, 170(1), 82-5. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2008.08.001
Markianos M, et al. Suicide Attempt By Jumping: a Study of Gonadal Axis Hormones in Male Suicide Attempters Versus Men Who Fell By Accident. Psychiatry Res. 2009 Nov 30;170(1):82-5. PubMed PMID: 19781790.
* Article titles in AMA citation format should be in sentence-case
TY - JOUR T1 - Suicide attempt by jumping: a study of gonadal axis hormones in male suicide attempters versus men who fell by accident. AU - Markianos,Manolis, AU - Tripodianakis,John, AU - Istikoglou,Christos, AU - Rouvali,Olga, AU - Christopoulos,Markos, AU - Papageorgopoulos,Pavlos, AU - Seretis,Andreas, Y1 - 2009/09/24/ PY - 2008/04/17/received PY - 2008/07/21/revised PY - 2008/08/05/accepted PY - 2009/9/29/entrez PY - 2009/9/29/pubmed PY - 2010/2/2/medline SP - 82 EP - 5 JF - Psychiatry research JO - Psychiatry Res VL - 170 IS - 1 N2 - Low plasma total testosterone (T) levels may influence the sense of well-being and produce depressive symptomatology, increasing the risk of suicide. In a previous study, we reported reduced serum T levels in male psychiatric patients after a suicide attempt. The reduction was more pronounced in subjects who used violent attempt methods, and we discussed the possible influence of stress of hospitalization, serious medical condition and treatment. In order to minimize the influence of such factors, we compared in this study the levels of plasma sex hormones of 15 psychiatric patients (10 suffering from schizophrenia and 5 from depression) who had attempted suicide by jumping with those of a group of 18 male subjects who were hospitalized after accidentally falling from a high height. Compared with a healthy control group of 40 males, both accident and attempt groups had lower T levels. The attempt group showed a trend toward lower T levels compared with levels in the accident group. In the accident group, luteinizing hormone (LH) levels were elevated compared with levels in healthy controls, indicating a normal function of the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis. This was not the case for the attempt group, where low T levels were not accompanied by increases in LH. Cortisol and prolactin were similarly elevated in both patient groups, but were not related to the low T levels. The results indicate that male psychiatric patients who attempt suicide by violent methods may have low total plasma T levels, possibly due to a dysfunction of the HPG axis at the hypothalamic-pituitary level. Monitoring HPG axis function in future studies could prove to be a predictor of suicide at least for male psychiatric attempters, and could lead to preventive strategies. SN - 0165-1781 UR - https://www.unboundmedicine.com/medline/citation/19781790/Suicide_attempt_by_jumping:_a_study_of_gonadal_axis_hormones_in_male_suicide_attempters_versus_men_who_fell_by_accident_ L2 - https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0165-1781(08)00255-2 DB - PRIME DP - Unbound Medicine ER -