Background: Previous research on serum total cholesterol and suicidality has yielded conflicting results. Several\nstudies have reported a link between low serum total cholesterol and suicidality, whereas others have failed to\nreplicate these findings, particularly in patients with major affective disorders. These discordant findings may reflect\nthe fact that studies often do not distinguish between patients with bipolar and unipolar depression; moreover,\ndefinitions and classification schemes for suicide attempts in the literature vary widely.\nMethods: Subjects were patients with one of the three major psychiatric disorders commonly associated with\nsuicide: schizophrenia, bipolar affective disorder, and major depressive disorder (MDD). We compared serum lipid\nlevels in patients who died by suicide (82 schizophrenia, 23 bipolar affective disorder, and 67 MDD) and non-suicide\ncontrols (200 schizophrenia, 49 bipolar affective disorder, and 175 MDD).\nResults: Serum lipid profiles did not differ between patients who died by suicide and control patients in any\ndiagnostic group.\nConclusions: Our results do not support the use of biological indicators such as serum total cholesterol to predict\nsuicide risk among patients with a major psychiatric disorder.
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