HYPOTHESIS - LOW SERUM-CHOLESTEROL, SUICIDE, AND INTERLEUKIN-2

An excess mortality for violence (suicides and injuries) has been obse rved following the use of cholesterol lowering drugs. It has been sugg ested that low cholesterol is associated with depression by modifying the serotonin metabolism. In this paper, a new hypothesis concerning t he association among serum lipids, depression, and atherosclerosis is proposed. The hypothesis is based on epidemiologic evidence concerning serum lipids, depression, violent deaths, and atherosclerosis. It is also based on previous results concerning a cytokine, interleukin-2. R ecent observations indicate that interleukin-2 has an important role i n lipid metabolism, depression, and atherosclerosis.