Increased neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio in suicide attempters

Abstract

Objective: Neutrophil lymphocyte ratio (NLR) is accepted as a new marker in assessing the systemic inflammatory response. In this study, we aimed to investigate NLR value in suicide attempters and to compare the results with the control group. Methods: Thirty-seven patients aged over 18 years applied to the emergency service because of suicide attempt were included in the study. Fifty healthy subjects were included in the study, which were similar to the patient group in terms of age, gender and body mass index. All participants were evaluated by a psychiatrist according to DSM-IV and asked to fill in the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). The NLR was calculated and recorded according to the hemogram analysis results. Results: There was no statistically significant difference between groups in terms of age, gender and body mass index. NLR, neutrophil and lymphocyte levels were found to be significantly higher in the patient group, as in the depression scale score. When we evaluated the patient group as two groups according to the presence of major depression, the BDI score was significantly different but there was no difference between the two groups in terms of NLR. NLR value was significantly higher in the patient group with and without depression than the control group. There was no significant correlation between NLR and BDI score. Conclusion: In our study, it was observed that NLR was significantly higher in suicide attempters, but the presence of major depression did not affect NLR. This suggests that different inflammatory processes may be effective in depression and suicidal behavior. Suicidality should be taken into consideration in studies investigating inflamma-tory processes in psychiatric disorders such as depression. There is also a need for larger follow-up studies in this subject.