G. Engstrom et al., RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN CSF NEUROPEPTIDES AND TEMPERAMENT TRAITS IN SUICIDE ATTEMPTERS, Personality and individual differences, 26(1), 1999, pp. 13-19
Depressive disorders have been associated with deviances in the levels
of various neuropeptide like immunoreactivities in the cerebrospinal
fluid (CSF), and also with specific temperament traits. With the hypot
hesis that neuropeptides in CSF might be associated with specific temp
erament traits, we studied a sample of 40 hospitalized suicide attempt
ers. They all filled in the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ) in
combination with the impulsiveness scale from the Impulsiveness-Ventu
resomeness-Empathy (IVE) inventory. Corticotropin releasing hormone (C
RH), neuropeptide Y (NPY), beta-endorphin, gamma-melanocyte stimulatin
g hormone (gamma(2)-MSH), somatostatin, peptide YY and delta-sleep ind
ucing peptide (DSIP) like immuno-reactivities were measured in lumbar
CSF. Contrary to our hypotheses, there was no relationship between neu
roticism and CRH or NPY. Psychoticism and impulsiveness correlated pos
itively and significantly with gamma(2)-MSH, a peptide associated with
increased sympathetic drive. The other neuropeptides showed no signif
icant associations with temperament. The relationship between gamma(2)
-MSH and the psychoticism dimension needs to be replicated and studies
of healthy subjects and nonsuicidal patients would be of interest. (C
) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.