Seclusion treatment measures and serum cholesterol levels among Finnish male forensic psychiatric patients

Abstract

Low total serum cholesterol (TC) concentrations have been found to be linked with violent and suicidal behavior among mentally ill patients and also in the general population. However, it has remained unclear if this correlation is non-linear, which would allow the determination of a cutoff TC level to differentiate violent or suicidal subjects from non-violent and non-suicidal subjects. We studied, in 397 Finnish forensic male patients, by using ROC analysis, the optimal cut-off point for TC level to differentiate between those who had been secluded because of acute acts, including violent and suicidal behaviors, and those who had not. According to ROC analysis, the observed cut-off points of the TC levels (5.3 mmol/l) for differentiating between those patients that had been secluded and those that were nonsecluded were below the mean TC levels of the Finnish general male population, and moderate sensitivities and specificities were achieved. The low (below 5.3 mmol/l) TC level seems to be a marker for an increased risk of violent and suicidal behavior among Finnish forensic male patients.