*Additional Prof, Dept. of Forensic Medicine, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh - 160012, India
**Additional Professor, Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh - 160012, India. E-mail: drbikashus@yahoo.com
***Ph.D. Student, Dept. of clinical Pharmacology, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh - 160012, India
****Senior Toxicologist, Dept. of Forensic Medicine
*****Prof, Dept. of Forensic Medicine, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh - 160012, India
Online published on 27 November, 2013.
Suicide is emerging as a major public health problem globally for all ages. it has been hypothesized that lowered levels of total serum cholesterol may cause a decrease in brain serotonin thereby leading to enhanced suicidal tendency in depression. The present study was conducted with an aim to find out the correlation of serum cholesterol level with serotonin level in cases of suicidal death and matched controls. Blood samples for cholesterol and serotonin levels were obtained from the 88 dead bodies during autopsy and 9 healthy volunteers who served as controls. Serum cholesterol and serotonin levels in the suicidal death cases were significantly lower than in the controls. Moreover, we found a significant positive correlation between these two variables in suicidal deaths. These findings indicate that the serotonergic system may be associated to serum cholesterol in suicidal deaths. However further investigation is necessary to establish these two variables as predictors of suicidality.
Suicide, Serum cholesterol, Serum serotonin, Suicidality
