An fMRI study on mental pain and suicidal behavior.
BACKGROUND
Suicide is a poorly understood phenomenon. A clinical model of suicide conceptualizes suicidal behavior as a solution to an unbearable state of mind, experienced as mental pain.


METHODS
In order to investigate the neural correlates of suicidal behavior, we used fMRI during presentation of autobiographical scripts extracted from personal narratives reactivating patients' memories of a recent episode of attempted suicide. Brain activation was measured during three recalled conditions: mental pain, suicide action, and neutral activity.


RESULTS
Recall of suicidal episodes, that is, mental pain plus suicide action, compared to neutral activity, was associated with deactivation in the prefrontal cortex (BA 6, 10, and 46). Recall of suicide action, however, compared to mental pain, was associated with increased activity in the medial prefrontal cortex, the anterior cingulate cortex, and the hippocampus.


CONCLUSIONS
This is a pilot study with eight female subjects.


CONCLUSIONS
Clinical and fMRI data suggest that mental pain triggering suicidal behavior may have the quality of traumatic stress, associated with decreased prefrontal activity. Planning and acting out suicidal impulses in response to mental pain, however, is associated with increased activity in the frontal cortex, suggesting that goal-directed suicidal behavior is associated with a reduction of mental pain.
Reisch
Thomas
T
University Hospital of Psychiatry Bern, Switzerland.
Seifritz
Erich
E
Esposito
Fabrizio
F
Wiest
Roland
R
Valach
Ladislav
L
Michel
Konrad
K
D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology; D005260:Female; D006179:Gyrus Cinguli / Q000503:physiopathology; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology; D010146:Pain / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D010865:Pilot Projects; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology; D013406:Suicide, Attempted / Q000523:psychology