scholarly journals Paralimbic and lateral prefrontal encoding of reward value during intertemporal choice in attempted suicide

2015 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 381-391 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. M. Vanyukov ◽  
K. Szanto ◽  
M. N. Hallquist ◽  
G. J. Siegle ◽  
C. F. Reynolds ◽  
...  

BackgroundAlongside impulsive suicide attempts, clinicians encounter highly premeditated suicidal acts, particularly in older adults. We have previously found that in contrast to the more impulsive suicide attempters’ inability to delay gratification, serious and highly planned suicide attempts were associated with greater willingness to wait for larger rewards. This study examined neural underpinnings of intertemporal preference in suicide attempters. We expected that impulsivity and suicide attempts, particularly poorly planned ones, would predict altered paralimbic subjective value representations. We also examined lateral prefrontal and paralimbic correlates of premeditation in suicidal behavior.MethodA total of 48 participants aged 46–90 years underwent extensive clinical and cognitive characterization and completed the delay discounting task in the scanner: 26 individuals with major depression (13 with and 13 without history of suicide attempts) and 22 healthy controls.ResultsMore impulsive individuals displayed greater activation in the precuneus/posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) to value difference favoring the delayed option. Suicide attempts, particularly better-planned ones, were associated with deactivation of the lateral prefrontal cortex (lPFC) in response to value difference favoring the immediate option. Findings were robust to medication exposure, depression severity and possible brain damage from suicide attempts, among other confounders. Finally, in suicide attempters longer reward delays were associated with diminished parahippocampal responses.ConclusionsImpulsivity was associated with an altered paralimbic (precuneus/PCC) encoding of value difference during intertemporal choice. By contrast, better-planned suicidal acts were associated with altered lPFC representations of value difference. The study provides preliminary evidence of impaired decision processes in both impulsive and premeditated suicidal behavior.

2009 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 114-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fernando Silva Neves ◽  
Leandro Fernandes Malloy-Diniz ◽  
Izabela Guimarães Barbosa ◽  
Paulo Marcos Brasil ◽  
Humberto Corrêa

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to test the hypothesis that the polarity of the first mood episode may be a marker for suicidal behavior, particularly the violent subtype. METHOD: One hundred and sixty-eight patients diagnosed with bipolar disorder (DSM-IV) were grouped according to type of first episode: depression or manic/hypomanic. Groups were compared for demographic and clinical variables. We performed logistic regression in order to test the association between first episode polarity and suicidal behavior. RESULTS: We found that depressed patients have a lifetime history of more suicide attempts. However, univariate analysis of number of suicide attempts showed that the best model fits the bipolar II subtype (mean square = 15.022; p = 0.010) and lifetime history of psychotic episodes (mean square = 17.359; p = 0.021). Subgrouping the suicide attempts by subtype (violent or non-violent) revealed that manic/hypomanic patients had a greater tendency toward attempting violent suicide (21.2 vs. 14.7%, X² = 7.028, p = 0.03). Multiple logistic regression analysis confirmed this result. CONCLUSION: Depressed patients had more suicide attempts over time, which could be explained by the higher prevalence of bipolar II subtype in this group, whereas manic/hypomanic patients had a lifelong history of more frequent violent suicide attempts, not explained by any of the variables studied. Our results support the evidence that non-violent suicide attempters and violent suicide attempters tend to belong to different phenotypic groups.


2001 ◽  
Vol 16 (7) ◽  
pp. 424-427 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Pitchot ◽  
M. Hansenne ◽  
M. Ansseau

SummarySeveral data are available about the implication of the dopaminergic system in the control of inward-directed aggression. Previously, we suggested an involvement of D2-dopaminergic function in the expression of suicidal behavior by demonstrating a smaller growth hormone (GH) response to apomorphine, a dopaminergic agonist, in depressed patients with a history of suicide attempts in comparison to non-attempters. In the present study, in order to test this hypothesis, GH responses to intravenous apomorphine were measured in non-depressed patients with a history of suicide attempts. The study was performed in 17 non-depressed male patients with a score less than 12 on the 17-item HAMD. The patients were subgrouped into suicide attempters (N = 7) and non-attempters (N = 10). Mean GH peak responses to apomorphine differed significantly between suicide attempters and non-attempters: (mean ± SD) for GH peak, 10.4 ± 8.2 ng/mL vs 27.3 ± 13.1 ng/ml, F = 9.0, P = 0.009. In conclusion, dopaminergic disturbances seem to play a role in the biology of inward-directed aggression in non-depressed patients.


Author(s):  
Joana Straub ◽  
Ferdinand Keller ◽  
Nina Sproeber ◽  
Michael G. Koelch ◽  
Paul L. Plener

Objective: Research in adults has identified an association between bipolar disorder and suicidal behavior. This relationship, however, has been insufficiently investigated in adolescents to date. Methods: 1,117 adolescents from 13 German schools (mean age = 14.83, SD = .63; 52.7% females) completed an extended German version of the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), which assesses depressive and manic symptoms during the last week, as well as the Self-Harm Behavior Questionnaire (SHBQ) for the assessment of lifetime suicidal behavior. Results: In the present sample 39.4% of the girls and 23.1% of the boys reported lifetime suicidal thoughts and 7.1% of the girls as well as 3.9% of the boys a lifetime history of suicide attempts. 18.7% of the adolescent sample revealed elevated symptoms of depression and 9% elevated levels of mania symptoms. Elevated sum scores of depression and mania were associated with a higher number of suicidal ideations and suicide attempts. A block-wise regression analysis revealed that sum scores of depression and mania predicted suicidal ideations best. Concerning suicide attempts, the best predictors were age as well as depression and mania sum scores. Conclusions: Suicidal behavior was reported more often when adolescents demonstrate symptoms of mania as well as symptoms of depression than when they demonstrate only depressive symptoms. The presence of bipolar symptoms in adolescents should alert clinicians to the heightened possibility of suicidal behavior.


2014 ◽  
Vol 44 (14) ◽  
pp. 2965-2974 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. G. Keilp ◽  
S. R. Beers ◽  
A. K. Burke ◽  
N. M. Melhem ◽  
M. A. Oquendo ◽  
...  

BackgroundOur previous work identified deficits in interference processing and learning/memory in past suicide attempters who were currently depressed and medication-free. In this study, we extend this work to an independent sample studied at various stages of illness and treatment (mild symptoms, on average) to determine if these deficits in past suicide attempters are evident during a less severe clinical state.MethodA total of 80 individuals with a past history of major depression and suicide attempt were compared with 81 individuals with a history of major depression and no lifetime suicide attempts on a battery of neurocognitive measures assessing attention, memory, abstract/contingent learning, working memory, language fluency and impulse control.ResultsPast attempters performed more poorly in attention, memory and working memory domains, but also in an estimate of pre-morbid intelligence. After correction for this estimate, tests that had previously distinguished past attempters – a computerized Stroop task and the Buschke Selective Reminding Test – remained significantly worse in attempters. In a secondary analysis, similar differences were found among those with the lowest levels of depression (Hamilton Depression Rating Scale score <10), suggesting that these deficits may be trait markers independent of current symptomatology.ConclusionsDeficits in interference processing and learning/memory constitute an enduring defect in information processing that may contribute to poor adaptation, other higher-order cognitive impairments and risk for suicidal behavior.


SLEEP ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zach Simmons ◽  
Gary Burlingame ◽  
Juergen Korbanka ◽  
Kevin Eastman ◽  
Douglas Thomas ◽  
...  

Abstract Study Objectives Insomnia is a risk factor for suicidal behavior including attempts and death by suicide. We investigated whether insomnia symptom severity was associated with suicidality and death by suicide in patients with psychiatric disorders. Methods The sample included 180 deceased patients with psychiatric disorders seen at Weber Human Services between 2008 and 2018 who completed the Outpatient Questionnaire-45.2 (OQ) prior to death. Insomnia symptom severity was assessed using item 41 from the OQ. Manner of death was determined by death records and autopsy reports. History of suicidality was determined through electronic medical records. Cases were grouped into 4 lifetime categories: non-suicidal (n=30), suicidal ideation (n=36), suicide attempt (n=95), and death by suicide (n=19). Demographic, medical, and psychiatric features of each group were compared using linear regression. Logistic regression was used to determine whether insomnia symptom severity was associated with lifetime suicidality severity grouping, adjusting for psychiatric disorders commonly linked to suicidality. Results Lifetime suicidality was associated with sleep problems, fatigue, headaches, and psychiatric disorders (i.e., depressive, personality, and trauma-related disorders). Referenced to the non-suicidal group, greater insomnia symptom severity was significantly associated with suicide attempts and death by suicide, with odds ratios (OR) of OR=2.67, p=0.011, and OR=5.53, p=0.002, respectively, even after adjusting important psychiatric diagnoses. Conclusions Results suggest that insomnia symptom severity endorsed during a clinical visit is associated with heightened suicidality, especially suicidal behavior. The presence of insomnia symptoms in patients with psychiatric disorders may indicate risk for suicide and is a target for suicide prevention.


2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (S1) ◽  
pp. s889-s889
Author(s):  
C.T. Lee ◽  
S.Y. Lee ◽  
K.U. Lee ◽  
H.K. Lee ◽  
Y.S. Kweon

IntroductionSuicide attempts with higher lethality increase the likelihood of suicide completion. Accumulating knowledge on risk factors contributing to higher suicide lethality may help clinicians to allocate their limited resources to more endangered people.ObjectivesTo explore the factors associated with higher lethality in suicide attempts.MethodsAll suicide attempters, who visited the emergency department of Uijeongbu St. Mary's hospital from January 2014 to December 2015, were reviewed retrospectively. We compared between the high vs. the low lethality group, of which had been recorded based on clinical judgment using t-test or Chi2/Fisher's exact test with two-sided P-value of 0.05.ResultsAmong the 753 suicide attempters, the assessed lethality was recorded in 736 cases. Low and highly lethal attempters were 426 (57.9%) and 310 (42.1%), respectively. For demographic variables, the high lethality attempters were significantly more likely to be older (48.3 vs. 44.78; P = 0.009), unemployed (61.0% vs. 56.5%; P = 0.042, without religion (90.9% vs. 84.9%; P = 0.017). For clinical variables, the high lethality attempters were significantly more likely have hopelessness (67.7% vs. 58.2%; P = 0.013) and a history of schizophrenia (4.5% vs. 1.4%; P = 0.023, while they did display any difference for mood disorders. The low lethality suicide attempts were more frequent in patients with comorbid personality disorders (9.2% vs. 4.9%; P = 0.031).ConclusionsThese results are in line with literatures reporting higher suicide risk in people, who are old, unemployed, not having a religion, psychotic and hopeless. These may have been moderated by committing a higher lethal means of suicide at least in part and warrants additional investigations.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.


2006 ◽  
Vol 36 (12) ◽  
pp. 1779-1788 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOHN G. KEILP ◽  
MARIANNE GORLYN ◽  
MARIA A. OQUENDO ◽  
BETH BRODSKY ◽  
STEVEN P. ELLIS ◽  
...  

Background. Impulsiveness, hostility and aggressiveness are traits associated with suicidal behavior, but also with borderline personality disorder (BPD). The presence of large numbers of BPD subjects in past attempter samples may distort the relative importance of each of these traits to predicting suicidal behavior, and lead to prospective, biological and genetic models that systematically misclassify certain subpopulations of suicidal individuals.Method. Two hundred and seventy-five subjects with major depressive disorder (MDD), including 87 with co-morbid BPD (69 past suicide attempters, 18 non-attempters) and 188 without BPD (76 attempters, 112 non-attempters) completed standard impulsiveness, hostility and aggressiveness ratings. Differences between past suicide attempters and non-attempters were examined with the sample stratified by BPD status.Results. As expected, BPD subjects scored significantly higher than non-BPD subjects on all three trait measures. Stratifying by BPD status, however, eliminated attempter/non-attempter differences in impulsiveness and hostility in both patient subgroups. Past suicide attempters in each of the two subgroups of patients were only distinguished by higher levels of aggressiveness.Conclusions. Once BPD is accounted for, a history of aggressive behavior appears to be the distinguishing trait characteristic of suicide attempters with major depression, rather than global personality dimensions such as impulsiveness or hostility. Aggressiveness, and not these related traits, may be the ideal target for behavioral, genetic and biological research on suicidal behavior, as well as for the clinical assessment of suicide risk.


2001 ◽  
Vol 16 (7) ◽  
pp. 386-394 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Gunilla Stålenheim

SummaryThe relationship between suicide attempts and different vulnerability factors was investigated in 61 male subjects during forensic psychiatric examination. Personality traits and psychopathy were determined by means of the Karolinska Scales of Personality (KSP) and the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R). Clinical diagnoses were determined by the use of Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R (SCID). Platelet monoamine oxidase (MAO) activity was investigated in 58 subjects.Suicide attempters had extremely low socialization and high impulsive aggression. This was independent of a history of repeatedly criminal violence or not. They had higher PCL-R scores and lower levels of platelet MAO activity than non-attempters. No relationship was found between suicide attempts and repeated violent criminality. However, among the subjects with repeated criminal violence there was a highly significant difference between suicide attempters and non-attempters, indicating different personality profiles in violent offenders with and without suicidal behavior. Suicidal behavior was significantly associated with borderline personality disorder, but not with any other single DSM-III-R disorder. The results show a far more severe personality disturbance in suicide attempters than in other violent patients in this type of population. Suicidal behavior should therefore be evaluated and treated per se.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beatriz Camarena ◽  
Ana Fresán ◽  
Emmanuel Sarmiento

Personality traits are important candidate predictors of suicidal behavior. Several studies have reported an association between personality/temperament traits and suicidal behavior, suggesting personality traits as intermediary phenotypes related to suicidal behavior. Thus, it is possible that suicide attempts can be accounted for by increased familial rates of risk personality traits. The aim of this work was to evaluate personality traits in affective disorder patients with attempted suicide and to compare them with the personality trait scores of their parents. In addition, ITC scores in the two groups were compared with a healthy control sample. The patients evaluated met the DSM-IV criteria for major depression disorder or dysthymia and had a documented history of suicide attempts. Psychiatric diagnoses of patients and parents were done according to the SCID-I and the personality was assessed using the Temperament and Character Inventory. We analyzed 49 suicide attempt subjects and their parents (n=95) and 89 control subjects. We observed that temperament and character dimensions were similar between patients and their parents (P>0.05). In particular, we observed that high HA and low P, SD, and CO were shared among families. Our study is the first to report that the personality traits of affective disorder patients with a history of attempted suicide are shared between patients and their parents.


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