Resource Tag: GENETICS

Suicide claims over 800,000 lives each year worldwide. Suicide rates in indigenous populations in Canada are about double that of the national average, making it a serious public health issue. Numerous factors are involved in suicide risk, including genetic factors, as well as various psychosocial stressors, such as historical experience with the Indian Residential School […]

Suicide claims over 800,000 lives each year worldwide. Suicide rates in indigenous populations in Canada are about double that of the national average, making it a serious public health issue. Numerous factors are involved in suicide risk, including genetic factors, as well as various psychosocial stressors, such as historical experience with the Indian Residential School […]

This paper presents a tentative typology of genetic and environmental pathways to suicidal behavior. Ten pathways are proposed and briefly illustrated: (i) direct effects from psychiatric disorders; (ii) direct effects from personality; (iii) direct effects of early adversity; (iv) direct effects of current adversity; (v) indirect effects of genes on selection into adversity (gene-environment correlation); […]

It has been well established that suicidal behavior is familial. Twin studies provide a unique opportunity to distinguish genetic effects from other familial influences. Consistent with findings from previous twin studies, including case series and selected samples, data from the population-based Swedish Twin Registry clearly demonstrate the importance of genetic influences on suicide. Twin studies […]

Alterations in a number of neurobiological systems have been associated with suicidal behavior including the serotonergic and noradrenergic systems and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. Altered functioning of these systems may stem from both genetic and developmental causes. Adversity in early-life has developmental consequences on these systems that persist into adulthood. Genetic differences may also contribute to […]

Suicide remains a clear, present and increasing public health problem, despite being a potentially preventable tragedy. Its incidence is particularly high in people with overt or un(der)diagnosed psychiatric disorders. Objective and precise identification of individuals at risk, ways of monitoring response to treatments and novel preventive therapeutics need to be discovered, employed and widely deployed. […]

Highlights •This study demonstrates that physical activity diminishes risk of major depressive disorder (MDD) and suicidal ideation (SI) imposed by a genetic predisposition. •Carriers of the mineralocorticoid receptor genetic variant −2C/G C allele were nearly twice as likely to meet criteria for probable MDD and three times as likely to report SI compared with noncarriers […]

The extent to which genetic and environmental factors influenced anorexia nervosa (AN), major depressive disorder (MDD), and suicide attempts (SA) were evaluated. Participants were 6,899 women from the Swedish Twin Study of Adults: Genes and Environment. A Cholesky decomposition assessed independent and overlapping genetic and environmental contributions to AN, MDD, and SA. Genetic factors accounted […]

Abnormalities in functioning of the central serotonergic system are believed to be involved in the pathogenesis of depressive illness and suicidal behaviour. Recently, polymorphism in the tryptophan hydroxylase (TPH) gene has been studied for association with aggression, anger-related traits and suicidal behaviour, but the results are inconclusive. The present investigation was to determine whether there […]

Highlights: Evidence supports both heritable and environmental influences in depression and suicidal behavior risk. GeneÐenvironment interaction (G _ E) studies may be useful to investigate the impact of both sources of risk. So far, within this context, only few results have been obtained in both depression and suicidal behavior, though some genes seems reliably moderating […]

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Background: Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one’s own death. The lifetime suicide risk in schizophrenia is 4.9% and 20% to 50% of patients with SCZ will attempt suicide during their life. The other risk factors for suicidal behavior in schizophrenia include prior history of suicide attempts, active psychosis, depression and substance abuse. To […]

Suicide has rarely been considered from an evolutionary perspective, likely because it appears prototypically maladaptive, and certainly appears to have no adaptive function. The current theory proffers a potential adaptive function of suicide: it might constitute a nepotistic response to pronounced resource scarcity. If this is so, conditions which maximize the adaptiveness of nepotistic behaviors […]

Objective: Gene expression changes have been reported in the brains of suicide completers. More recently, differences in promoter DNA methylation between suicide completers and comparison subjects in specific genes have been associated with these changes in gene expression patterns, implicating DNA methylation alterations as a plausible component of the pathophysiology of suicide. The authors used […]

The association between suicide & a single nucleotide polymorphism (rs1386483) was examined in the recently identified tryptophan hydroxylase 2 gene. Blood samples of 143 suicide victims & 162 age- & gender-matched controls were examined. The frequency of the TT genotype in the tryptophan hydroxylase 2 polymorphism was higher in suicide victims than in controls, particularly […]

A number of recent studies have shown epigenetic alterations associated with suicidal behaviour. These epigenetic mechanisms, which alter gene expression via alternative mechanisms to the coding DNA sequence, result from environmental effects acting on the genome. The present review briefly describes the main epigenetic mechanisms involved in the regulation of gene expression & discusses recent […]

The authors genotyped 63 polymorphisms, across 4 polyaminergic genes, in 1255 French-Canadian individuals, followed longitudinally for 22 years. Univariate associations with anxiety, mood disorders, & attempted suicide as assessed in early adulthood were examined. The involvement of gene-environment interactons in terms of childhood abuse were investigated & internalizing & externalizing symptoms as endophenotypes mediating these […]

In this commentary, Batty & his colleagues respond to Mukamal & Miller’s comments on their study of body mass index & suicide. Mukamal & Miller discussed the issue of confounding factors & it is this issue that Batty et al focus on & how it might be circumvented. (7 refs.) JA Contact us for a […]

The relationship between candidate genes & 2 clinical outcomes, symptomatic improvement & the occurrence of suicidal events, was assessed in a sample of treatment-resistant depressed adolescents. Depressed adolescents were genotyped with respect to 21 polymorphisms on 12 genes that have a reported association with depression, treatment response, or suicidal events. No response was observed between […]

The aim of this literature review was not to comprehensively include all studies investigating the link between suicide & genetics but mainly to focus on new studies & ways of integrating & explaining the overall results. The second part of the review is based on a re-examination of the authors’ experimental works on this topic. […]

This study examined whether rs4606, a single nucleotide polymorphism in the translated region at the 3′ end of RGS2, was related to suicide ideation in an epidemiologic sample of adults living in areas affected by the 2004 Florida hurricanes. A sample was generated via random digit-dial procedures. 607 participants who returned buccal DNA samples via […]

This study tested the association of the polymorphism in the serotonin 2C (5HT-2C) receptor coding region (Cys23Ser) with deaths by suicide. The study was based on 2 independent samples, one German (284 suicide victims versus 297 controls) & the other of Slavic/Croatian ethnicity (118 suicide victims versus 275 controls). No significant differences in allele or […]