Fatty acid composition in postmortem brains of people who completed suicide.
OBJECTIVE
Cholesterol levels have been reported to be lower in suicidal patients, and alterations in blood levels of polyunsaturated fatty acids have been found in people with depression. Given that the evidence for the link between lipid metabolism and psychopathology thus far has almost exclusively hinged on alterations of these variables in blood, this study aimed to address whether similar alterations in fatty acids would be evident in the brains of people who complete suicide.


METHODS
Using gas chromatography, we measured 49 different fatty acids in the orbitofrontal cortex and the ventral prefrontal cortex of people who had completed suicide with (n = 16) and without (n = 23) major depression and in control subjects (n = 19) with no current psychopathology and whose cause of death was sudden.


RESULTS
Comparisons of fatty acids between the 3 groups did not reveal significant differences.


CONCLUSIONS
Further research is required to better understand the link between fatty acids in the peripheral circulation and those in the central nervous system before determining whether fatty acids play a mediating role in suicidal behaviour.
Lalovic
Aleksandra
A
McGill Group for Suicide Studies, Douglas Hospital Research Centre, Verdun, QC, Canada.
Levy
Emile
E
Canetti
Lilian
L
Sequeira
Adolfo
A
Montoudis
Alain
A
Turecki
Gustavo
G
D000328:Adult; D001923:Brain Chemistry / Q000502:physiology*; D002784:Cholesterol / Q000378:metabolism; D044943:Fatty Acid Desaturases / Q000032:analysis; D005227:Fatty Acids / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D013405:Suicide; D014015:Tissue Banks