Association between serum lipid concentrations and attempted suicide in patients with major depressive disorder: A meta-analysis.

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

There is growing evidence that serum lipid concentrations may be associated with attempted suicide in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD), but these findings remain controversial. Thus, we performed a comprehensive meta-analysis to quantitatively assess the associations between serum lipid concentrations and attempted suicide in MDD patients.

MATERIALS AND METHODS:

Electronic databases (PubMed, Embase, the Cochrane Library and the China National Knowledge Library) were searched for relevant literature up to 10 February 2020. We used a random-effects model based on heterogeneity amongst studies and generated pooled standardised mean differences (SMDs).

RESULTS:

Thirty-two studies comprising 7,068 subjects met the inclusion criteria. A pooled analysis showed that compared with non-attempters, MDD patients who had attempted suicide had significantly lower serum concentrations of total cholesterol (TC) (SMD: -0.63, 95% CI: -0.83 to -0.44) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) (SMD: -0.69, 95% CI: -1.04 to -0.34), but the serum concentrations of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) (SMD: -0.12, 95% CI: -0.33 to 0.10) and triglycerides (TGs) (SMD: 0.00, 95% CI: -0.20 to 0.20) were not significantly different between the two groups. Subgroup and meta-regression analysis indicated that heterogeneity with respect to TC concentrations may be due to different ages (p = 0.041) and sample sizes (p = 0.016) of studies, and that heterogeneity with respect to HDL-C concentrations may be partly due to different settings of studies (p = 0.017).

CONCLUSIONS:

This meta-analysis demonstrated that lower concentrations of TC and LDL-C, but not of HDL-C and TGs, were associated with attempted suicide in MDD patients. This indicates that TC and LDL-C may be useful as biological markers for predicting whether MDD patients may attempt to commit suicide.

• Authors: Huan Li, Xueyan Zhang, Qing Sun, Rui Zou, Zhijun Li, Shengyuan Liu
• Journal: PloS one (PLoS One) Vol. 15 Issue 12 Pg. e0243847 ( 2020) ISSN: 1932-6203 [Electronic] United States
• PMID: 33301469 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Meta-Analysis, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't)

Chemical References

• Lipids
• Triglycerides
• Cholesterol

Topics

• Adult
• Cholesterol (blood)
• Depressive Disorder, Major (blood, psychology)
• Female
• Humans
• Lipids (blood)
• Male
• Middle Aged
• Regression Analysis
• Suicide, Attempted
• Triglycerides (blood)