Hair cortisol level might be indicative for a 3PM approach towards suicide risk assessment in depression: comparative analysis of mentally stable and depressed individuals versus individuals after completing suicide.
EPMA J
; 13(3): 383-395, 2022 Sep.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-2014566
ABSTRACT
Depression and suicidal behavior are interrelated, stress-associated mental health conditions, each lacking biological verifiability. Concepts of predictive, preventive, and personalized medicine (3PM) are almost completely missing for both conditions but are of utmost importance. Prior research reported altered levels of the stress hormone cortisol in the scalp hair of depressed individuals, however, data on hair cortisol levels (HCL) for suicide completers (SC) are missing. Here, we aimed to identify differences in HCL between subject with depression (n = 20), SC (n = 45) and mentally stable control subjects (n = 12) to establish the usage of HCL as a new target for 3PM. HCL was measured in extracts of pulverized hair (1-cm and 3-cm hair segments) using ELISA. In 3-cm hair segments, an average increase in HCL for depressed patients (1.66 times higher; p = .011) and SC (5.46 times higher; p = 1.65 × 10-5) compared to that for controls was observed. Furthermore, the average HCL in SC was significantly increased compared to that in the depressed group (3.28 times higher; p = 1.4 × 10-5). A significant correlation between HCL in the 1-cm and the 3-cm hair segments, as well as a significant association between the severity of depressive symptoms and HCL (3-cm segment) was found. To conclude, findings of increased HCL in subjects with depression compared to that in controls were replicated and an additional increase in HCL was seen in SC in comparison to patients with depression. The usage of HCL for creating effective patient stratification and predictive approach followed by the targeted prevention and personalization of medical services needs to be validated in follow-up studies.
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Type of study:
Cohort study
/
Prognostic study
Language:
English
Journal:
EPMA J
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
S13167-022-00296-z
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