Alterations in the N-Methyl-D-Aspartate (NMDA) Receptor Complex in the Frontal Cortex of Suicide Victims

For this paper the authors examined the frontal cortices of 22 adult suicide victims compared with 22 age-matched sudden death controls. Results show that the proportion of high affinity, glycine displaceable (3H)CGP-39653 binding to glutamate receptors was reduced from 45 +/-5% in controls to 27 +/-6% in age and post-mortem interval-matched suicide victims.This data is the first demonstration supporting the hypothesis that glutamatergic dysfunction is involved in suicide and depression.