Simple blood test to predict suicide risk

Researchers have discovered a series of RNA bio-markers in blood that may help identify who is at risk for committing suicide.
The bio-markers were found at significantly higher levels in the blood of both bipolar disorder patients with thoughts of suicide as well in a group of people who had committed suicide, researchers from the Indiana University said.
Principal investigator Alexander B Niculescu III, said he believes the results provide a first "proof of principle" for a test that could provide an early warning of somebody being at higher risk for an impulsive suicide act.
"There are people who will not reveal they are having suicidal thoughts when you ask them, who then commit it and there's nothing you can do about it. We need better ways to identify, intervene and prevent these tragic cases," he said.

Over a three-year period, Niculescu and his colleagues followed a large group of patients diagnosed with bipolar disorder, completing interviews and taking blood samples every three to six months.
The researchers conducted a variety of analyses of the blood of a subset of participants who reported a dramatic shift from no suicidal thoughts to strong suicidal ideation.

They identified differences in gene expression between the "low" and "high" states of suicidal thoughts and subjected those findings to a system of genetic and genomic analysis called Convergent Functional Genomics that identified and prioritised the best markers by cross-validation with other lines of evidence.

The researchers found that the marker SAT1 and a series of other markers provided the strongest biological "signal" associated with suicidal thoughts.
To validate their findings, they analysed blood samples from suicide victims and found that some of same top markers were significantly elevated.
Researchers analysed blood test results from two additional groups of patients and found that high blood levels of the bio-markers were correlated with future suicide-related hospitalisations, as well as hospitalisations that had occurred before the blood tests.
"This suggests that these markers reflect more than just a current state of high risk, but could be trait markers that correlate with long term risk," said Niculescu.

"There could be gender differences. We would also like to conduct more extensive, normative studies, in the population at large," he said.
In addition to extending the research to females to see if the same or other markers come into play, Niculescu and colleagues plan to conduct research among other groups, such as persons who have less impulsive, more deliberate and planned subtypes of suicide.
The study was published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.