Total serum cholesterol levels and suicide attempts in child and adolescent psychiatric inpatients
Open accessAbstract
Associations between cholesterol and suicidal behavior in adolescent patients have not been explored in depth. In this study, 66 patients consecutively admitted to a psychiatric inpatient unit following attempted suicide were compared with a control group of 54 patients with no history of suicide attempts. The age range of the sample was from 8 to 18 years old. Cholesterol levels were significantly lower in attempted suicide patients than in controls (p < 0.02), supporting the hypothesis that lower cholesterol levels might be associated with suicidal behavior in patients with similar acute phase of their disorder.
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Individuals with major depressive disorder who later attempt suicide exhibit significantly lower plasma levels of omega-3 PUFAs, particularly EPA and DHA.
“Prospective data demonstrate that individuals with major depressive disorder who later attempt suicide exhibit significantly lower plasma levels of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), particularly eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) (78).”
From Exploring the neurobiological markers of suicidal behaviors in pediatric population: a narrative review (2026) · cites this paper as [78]
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Peripheral and Neural Correlates of Self-Harm in Children and Adolescents: A Scoping ReviewPreprint
Sparrow-Downes, V. M., Trincao-Batra, S., Cloutier, P., Helleman, A., Salamatmanesh, M., Gardner, W., Baksh, A., Kapur, R., Sheridan, N., Suntharalingam, S., et al. (2021) · Research Square · doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-955587/v1
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Sparrow-Downes, V. M., Trincao-Batra, S., Cloutier, P., Helleman, A., Salamatmanesh, M., Gardner, W. P., Baksh, A., Kapur, R., Sheridan, N., Suntharalingam, S., et al. (2022) · Figshare · doi:10.6084/m9.figshare.19710991
Sparrow-Downes, V. M., Trincao-Batra, S., Cloutier, P., Helleman, A., Salamatmanesh, M., Gardner, W. P., Baksh, A., Kapur, R., Sheridan, N., Suntharalingam, S., et al. (2022) · Figshare · doi:10.6084/m9.figshare.19711000
Sparrow-Downes, V. M., Trincao-Batra, S., Cloutier, P., Helleman, A., Salamatmanesh, M., Gardner, W. P., Baksh, A., Kapur, R., Sheridan, N., Suntharalingam, S., et al. (2022) · Figshare · doi:10.6084/m9.figshare.19710997
- Authors
- Plana, T., Gracia, R., Méndez, I., Pintor, L., Lazaro, L., & Castro-Fornieles, J.
- Affiliations
- Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Salud Mental (ES)
- Corporació Sanitària Parc Taulí (ES)
- University of Pittsburgh (US)
- Hospital Clínic de Barcelona (ES)
- Corresponding author
- Plana, Teresa
- ORCID
- Venue
- European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
- Published
- 2010-01-03
- Volume
- 19
- Issue
- 7
- Pages
- 615-619
- ISSN
- 1018-8827 (ISSN-L)
- 1435-165X
- OpenAlex
- W2151029619
- Cited by
- 26
- References
- 36
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 1 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 1 · 2015: 1 · 2014: 3 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 0.70
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- hal.science
- Licence
- other-oa
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- HAL (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Social Science Open Access Repository (GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences) (submittedVersion)
- Trinity's Access to Research Output (TARA) (Trinity College Dublin) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Suicide and Self-Harm Studies
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Bipolar Disorder and Treatment
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Surgery › Lipoproteins and Cardiovascular Health
- Keywords
- total cholesterol, suicide attempts, suicidal behavior, adolescents, children, psychiatric inpatients, serum lipids, suicide risk factors
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Mental Disorders, Child, Cholesterol, Depressive Disorder, Female, Hospitalization, Humans, Male, Reference Values, Retrospective Studies, Risk Factors, Spain, Suicide, Attempted, Case-Control Studies
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