Abstract
Mood disorder patients have greater suicide risk than members of the general population, but how suicidal behavior relates to brain functions has not been fully elucidated. This study investigated how functional connectivity (FC) values between the right/left amygdala and the whole brain relate to suicidal behavior in patients with mood disorder. The participants in this study were 100 mood disorder patients with suicidal behavior (SB group), 120 mood disorder patients with non-suicidal behavior (NSB group), and 138 age- and gender-matched healthy controls (HC group). Whole-brain FC values among the three groups were compared using an analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). Compared to the NSB and HC groups, increased FC values in the right amygdala-bilateral paracentral lobule/precuneus circuit were observed in the SB group (Bonferroni-corrected, p < 0.017). The FC values in the NSB group did not differ significantly from those in the HC group (Bonferroni-corrected, p > 0.017). Moreover, there were no significant differences in FC values between mood disorder patients with suicide attempt (SA group) and mood disorder patients with suicidal ideation (SI group), while the FC values between the right amygdala and bilateral paracentral lobule/precuneus in the SA group were higher than the mean in the SI group. These findings suggest that right amygdala-paracentral lobule/precuneus dysfunction has an important role in patients with mood disorder and suicidal behavior.
Highlights
Suicide is a worldwide public health problem
Post hoc tests revealed that the SB group showed significantly increased functional connectivity (FC) values between the right amygdala and bilateral paracentral lobule/precuneus compared to the NSB and healthy controls (HCs) groups (Bonferronicorrected, p < 0.017; Figure 1B)
We found that the FC values between the right amygdala and bilateral paracentral lobule/precuneus differed among the three groups
Summary
More than 800 000 people die by suicide according to the World Health Organization (Health, 2017), making suicide the third leading cause of death in the age group of 15–44 years (Bertolote and Fleischmann, 2015). Several studies have indicated that a prior suicide attempt and suicidal ideation are important predictive factors for suicide in the population with mood disorders (Brown et al, 2000; Kuo et al, 2001; Klonsky et al, 2016). There are many more people who attempt suicide and have suicidal ideation every year (World Health Organization, 2014). To improve the availability and quality of biomarkers for effective suicide prevention, many studies employing various methods have been conducted to analyze suicidal behavior in mood disorder patients
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