Biochemical Studies in Suicide Victims: Current Findings and Future Implications

This chapter reviews some neurochemical findings in postmortem suicide studies of brain levels of biogenic amines & their metabolites. The major ones are: serotonergic dysfunction was found in suicides, irrespective of diagnosis; this relationship seems constant across the age span. These findings, along with other data, suggest a “2-condition” theory: suicide derives in part from a combination of a psychiatric condition (e.g. major depression) & serotonergic dysfunction.