Association of personal and familial suicide risk with low serum cholesterol concentration in male lithium patients

Objective: We sought to establish whether low cholesterol concentration may be associated with a personal history of attempted suicide or a family his tory of completed suicide in psychiatric out-patients on maintenance lithiu m treatment, who represent a population at risk for suicide. Method: We retrospectively reviewed charts regarding 783 out-patients conse cutively admitted to a lithium clinic from 1976 to 1999. Individual age- an d gender-specific quartile of serum cholesterol concentration were correlat ed against personal lifetime suicide attempts and completed suicide in firs t-degree relatives. Results: The proportion of men with a personal lifetime history of attempte d suicide, especially if violent, and that of men with history of completed suicide in a first-degree relative were significantly higher among the gro up with cholesterol concentration in the lowest quartile compared to the gr oup with cholesterol levels above the 25th percentile. Conclusion: Low cholesterol concentration should be studied further as a po tential biological/genetic marker of suicide risk.