Abstract
BackgroundStudies have shown that patients suffering from depression or schizophrenia often have immunological alterations that can be detected in the blood. Others reported a possible link between inflammation, a microgliosis and the blood-brain barrier (BBB) in suicidal patients. Serum S100B is a marker of BBB function commonly used to study cerebrovascular wall function.MethodsWe measured levels of S100B in serum of 40 adolescents with acute psychosis, 24 adolescents with mood disorders and 20 healthy controls. Patients were diagnosed according to DSM-IV TR criteria. We evaluated suicidal ideation using the suicidality subscale of the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale for Children (BPRS-C).ResultsSerum S100B levels were significantly higher (p<0.05) and correlated to severity of suicidal ideation in patients with psychosis or mood disorders, independent of psychiatric diagnosis. Patients with a BPRS-C suicidality subscores of 1–4 (low suicidality) had mean serum S100B values +/− SEM of 0.152+/−0.020 ng/mL (n = 34) compared to those with BPRS-C suicidality subscores of 5–7 (high suicidality) with a mean of 0.354+/−0.044 ng/mL (n = 30). This difference was statistically significant (p<0.05).ConclusionOur data support the use of S100B as an adjunctive biomarker to assess suicidal risk in patients with mood disorders or schizophrenia.
Highlights
Every year, one million people die by suicide worldwide, and approximately every forty seconds there is a suicide attempt [1]
Microgliosis in the anterior cingulated cortex, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, hippocampus and mediodorsal thalamic nucleous has been reported in suicidal patients, independent of the diagnosis, though it is difficult to elucidate if microglial activation is the cause or consequence of suicide [17,18]
Inclusion criteria included: age between 12–18 years, and psychosis diagnosed by consensus of two child and adolescent psychiatrists using the DSM-IV TR criteria for first-episode psychosis: psychosis Not Otherwise Specified (N.O.S), schizophreniform disorder, schizoaffective disorder and schizophrenia diagnosed within the 6 months prior to admission
Summary
One million people die by suicide worldwide, and approximately every forty seconds there is a suicide attempt [1]. Biomarker studies of suicidal patients have shown immunological abnormalities in patient with psychotic and mood disorders [2,3,4,5,6,7]. Microgliosis in the anterior cingulated cortex, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, hippocampus and mediodorsal thalamic nucleous has been reported in suicidal patients, independent of the diagnosis (schizophrenia vs mood disorders), though it is difficult to elucidate if microglial activation is the cause or consequence of suicide [17,18]. Studies have shown that patients suffering from depression or schizophrenia often have immunological alterations that can be detected in the blood. Others reported a possible link between inflammation, a microgliosis and the blood-brain barrier (BBB) in suicidal patients. Serum S100B is a marker of BBB function commonly used to study cerebrovascular wall function
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