CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 95Suicide and Self-Harm StudiesTryptophan and brain disordersStress Responses and Cortisol

An inflammatory profile linked to increased suicide risk

Open access
Keaton, Sarah A., Madaj, Zachary B., Heilman, Patrick, Smart, LeAnn, Grit, Jamie, Gibbons, Robert, Postolache, Teodor T., Roaten, Kimberly +2 more·2019·Journal of Affective Disorders
DOI 10.1016/j.jad.2018.12.100PMC PMC6860980
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

Background Suicide risk assessments are often challenging for clinicians, and therefore, biological markers are warranted as guiding tools in these assessments. Suicidal patients display increased cytokine levels in peripheral blood, although the composite inflammatory profile in the subjects is still unknown. It is also not yet established whether certain inflammatory changes are specific to suicidal subjects. To address this, we measured 45 immunobiological factors in peripheral blood and identified the biological profiles associated with cross-diagnostic suicide risk and depression, respectively.Methods Sixty-six women with mood and anxiety disorders underwent computerized adaptive testing for mental health, assessing depression and suicide risk. Weighted correlation network analysis was used to uncover system level associations between suicide risk, depression, and the immunobiological factors in plasma. Secondary regression models were used to establish the sensitivity of the results to potential confounders, including age, body mass index (BMI), treatment and symptoms of depression and anxiety.Results The biological profile of patients assessed to be at increased suicide risk differed from that associated with depression. At the system level, a biological cluster containing increased levels of interleukin-6, lymphocytes, monocytes, white blood cell count and polymorphonuclear leukocyte count significantly impacted suicide risk, with the latter two inferring the strongest influence. The cytokine interleukin-8 was independently and negatively associated with increased suicide risk. The results remained after adjusting for confounders.Limitations This study is cross-sectional and not designed to prove causality.Discussion A unique immunobiological profile was linked to increased suicide risk. The profile was different from that observed in patients with depressive symptoms, and indicates that granulocyte mediated biological mechanisms could be activated in patients at risk for suicide.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/j.jad.2018.12.100

Cites

70 of 70 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Higher levels of CRP, IL-6, IL-8, white blood cell count, and TNF-α were found to be significantly associated with suicidal behavior or idealization in studies with MDD.

    “Higher levels of CRP,32 IL-6,33 IL-8,33 white blood cell count,33,34 and TNF-α35 were found to be significantly associated with suicidal behavior or idealization in studies with MDD.”

    From Association Between Mood Disorder Severity, Treatment Response and Systemic Inflammatory Markers: Exploring the Role of NLR, PLR, MLR, and SII (2024) · cites this paper as [33]

    For the portion attributed to this paper—IL-6, IL-8, and white blood cell count—the Results (page unavailable) link increased IL-6 and white blood cell counts with suicide risk. They report the opposite direction for IL-8: lower, not higher, levels were associated with increased risk. The study examined women with mood disorders rather than exclusively patients with MDD. (LLM, conf=0.90)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • Peripheral inflammatory biomarkers linked to suicide risk include elevated CRP, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, proinflammatory interleukins, cytokines such as IL-1β and IL-6, TNF-α, TGF-β1, and VEGF, and low levels of anti-inflammatory IL-2, IL-4, and IFN-γ in suicidal individuals.

    “Peripheral inflammatory biomarkers linked to suicide risk include elevated C-reactive protein (CRP), neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, proinflammatory interleukins (IL), cytokines that regulate the immune response (e.g., IL-1β and IL-6), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), tissue growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1), and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and low levels of the anti-inflammatory IL-2, IL-4,”

    From A brain-centric model of suicidal behavior (2020) · cites this paper as [202]

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 2

  1. First M, Spitzer RL, Gibbon ML, Williams J, 2002 Structured clinical interview for DSM-IV-TR Axis I Disorders, Research Version, Non-patient Edition
  2. Meier TB, Drevets WC, Wurfel BE, Ford BN, Morris HM, Victor TA, Bodurka J, Teague TK, Dantzer R, Savitz J, 2016b Relationship between neurotoxic kynurenine metabolites and reductions in right medial prefrontal cortical thickness in major depressive disorder. Brain, behavior, and immunity 53, 39– 48. PMC4783304 26546831

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Keaton, S. A., Madaj, Z. B., Heilman, P., Smart, L., Grit, J., Gibbons, R., Postolache, T. T., Roaten, K., Achtyes, E. D., & Brundin, L.
Affiliations
  • Van Andel Institute (US)
  • Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Services (US)
  • University of Chicago (US)
  • University of Maryland, Baltimore (US)
  • The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (US)
Corresponding author
Brundin, Lena
ORCID
Venue
Journal of Affective Disorders
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2019-03
Volume
247
Pages
57-65
ISSN
0165-0327 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1016/j.jad.2018.12.100
PMC
PMC6860980
OpenAlex
W2906735570
Cited by
95
References
70
Citations by year
2026: 8 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 16 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 17 · 2021: 17 · 2020: 16 · 2019: 3
FWCI
15.46
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
www.elsevier.com/tdm/userlicense/1.0/ (tdm)
Locations
  • Journal of Affective Disorders (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
  • NIH (R01-MH104622, R01-MH66302)
  • American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (DIG 1-162-12)
  • FDA (FDU.001418)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Suicide and Self-Harm Studies
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Biological Psychiatry › Tryptophan and brain disorders
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Behavioral Neuroscience › Stress Responses and Cortisol
Keywords
suicide risk, inflammatory profile, cytokines, interleukin-6, interleukin-8, depression, mood and anxiety disorders, women, granulocytes, white blood cell count, polymorphonuclear leukocytes, lymphocytes, monocytes, biomarkers, suicide risk assessment
MeSH terms
Adolescent, Adult, Aged, Cross-Sectional Studies, Depressive Disorder, Disease Susceptibility, Female, Humans, Inflammation, Leukocyte Count, Lymphocytes, Middle Aged, Psychiatric Status Rating Scales, Risk Factors, Suicide, Attempted, Biomarkers, Cytokines, Young Adult, Suicidal Ideation

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review