Groundbreaking research identifies genetic markers associated with suicide attempts, challenging traditional psychiatric perspectives.
New Delhi (THP) It is now possible to detect if a person will attempt suicide at the slightest trigger. And the triggering factors may not always be psychiatric disorders and non-psychiatric risk factors. Genes also have a major role to play.
In the most extensive study on suicide attempts, researchers analysed 29,782 cases and 519,961 controls in the International Suicide Genetics Consortium. Two significant loci were identified—the major histocompatibility complex and a chromosome 7 intergenic locus. The latter retained its association with suicide attempts even after accounting for psychiatric disorders and was confirmed in a separate cohort of 14,000 veterans in the Million Veteran Program.
An international consortium of scientists has dissected the shared genetic architecture of suicide attempts, psychiatric disorders, and non-psychiatric risk factors and confirmed that such suicide attempts may not always be driven by underlying psychiatric disorders.
The study also found overlap in the genetic basis of suicide attempts and that of related psychiatric disorders, particularly major depression, and also with that of non-psychiatric risk factors such as smoking, risk-taking behaviour, sleep disturbances, and poorer general health. The study results, published in Biological Psychiatry, suggest that the genetic underpinnings of suicide attempts are partially shared and partially distinct from those of related psychiatric disorders.
To help elucidate the underlying biology of suicide attempts, an international consortium of scientists from the International Suicide Genetics Consortium conducted a genome-wide association study. This method involved scanning the DNA of many people, looking for genetic markers that were more common in those who had made a suicide attempt. The team scanned more than 7.5 million common variations in the DNA sequence of nearly 5.5 lakh people, almost 30,000 of whom had made a suicide attempt.
“In addition to identifying the risk location for suicide attempt on chromosome 7, we uncovered a strong overlap in the genetic basis of suicide attempt and that of psychiatric disorders, particularly major depression, as well as some overlap with the genetics of smoking, pain, risk-taking, sleep disturbances, and poorer general health,” said Niamh Mullins, PhD, Assistant Professor of Psychiatric Genomics at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, co-chair of the consortium, and lead author of the paper.
“This genetic overlap with non-psychiatric risk factors was largely unchanged by adjusting for psychiatric disorders, which suggests that a substantial component of the biological basis of a suicide attempt is not simply a by-product of comorbid psychiatric disease, but instead may be the result of shared biology with non-psychiatric risk factors,” he said.
“This study is an exciting advancement of our understanding of how the genetics of suicide attempt relates to that of psychiatric and non-psychiatric risk factors,” said JooEun Kang, an MD-PhD student at Vanderbilt University Medical Centre and co-lead author of the paper.
DNA variations in this region have previously been linked with insomnia, smoking, and risk-taking behaviour, and although future work is needed to uncover the underlying biological mechanism, findings like these bring researchers a step closer to understanding the neurobiology of suicidality.
“The study findings also point to the importance of studying the potential direct causal paths between these risk factors and suicide attempt in patients with and without psychiatric illness,” added Douglas Ruderfer, Associate Professor of Genetic Medicine, Psychiatry, and Biomedical Informatics at Vanderbilt University Medical Centre, senior author of the paper.
Suicide is a worldwide public health problem, accounting for almost 8 lakh deaths per year. Non-fatal suicide attempts are estimated to occur more than 20 times for every death by suicide and are a major source of disability, reduced quality of life, and social and economic burden. Suicidal thoughts and behaviours can be reduced with proper mental health support and treatment. Therefore, it is critical to gain insight into the underlying biological pathways involved in suicide attempts or suicidal thoughts, which could provide potential avenues to treatment and prevention strategies.
(Source: The Health Presso)
