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Low Serum Cholesterol and Suicide

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Keith Hawton ,
Philip Cowen ,
David Owens ,
Alyson Bond  and
Martin Elliott
Keith Hawton
Affiliation:
University Department of Psychiatry and Warneford Hospital, Oxford OX3 7JX
Philip Cowen
Affiliation:
Research Unit, Littlemore Hospital, Oxford OX4 4XN
David Owens
Affiliation:
University of Leeds, Academic Unit of Psychiatry, 15 Hyde Terrace, Leeds LS2 9LT
Alyson Bond
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, London SE5 8AF
Martin Elliott
Affiliation:
Oxford University SmithKline Beecham Centre for Applied Neuropsychobiology, University Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Radcliffe Infirmary, Woodstock Road, Oxford OX2 6HE
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Abstract

“Primary prevention trials which have shown that the lowering of serum cholesterol concentrations in middle-aged subjects by diet, drugs, or both leads to a decrease in coronary heart disease have also reported an increase in deaths due to suicide or violence. There has been no adequate explanation for this association. I have reviewed the relevant published work and describe a physiological mechanism that might account for this curious finding. One of the functions of serotonin in the central nervous system is the suppression of harmful behaviour impulses. When mouse brain synaptosomal membrane cholesterol is increased there is a pronounced increase in the number of serotonin receptors. Low membrane cholesterol decreases the number of serotonin receptors. Since membrane cholesterol exchanges freely with cholesterol in the surrounding medium, a lowered serum cholesterol concentration may contribute to a decrease in brain serotonin, with poorer suppression of aggressive behaviour.”

Type
The Current Literature
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 162 , Issue 6 , June 1993 , pp. 818 - 825
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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