Citation

Golden RN, Gilmore JH, Corrigan MH, Ekstrom RD, Knight BT, Garbutt JC. J. Clin. Psychiatry 1991; 52(Suppl): 61-69.

Affiliation

Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Chapel Hill.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1991, Physicians Postgraduate Press)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

1721619

Abstract

Both suicidal and aggressive, impulsive behaviors have been linked to putative dysregulation in central serotonergic systems. We review data examining the role of serotonin (5-HT) in suicide from postmortem studies and clinical investigations of suicide attempters, including our own preliminary work derived from neuroendocrine challenges with the 5-HT uptake inhibitor clomipramine. Various approaches to the study of 5-HT and aggressive, impulsive behavior, including cerebrospinal fluid studies, investigations of peripheral measures of 5-HT, and neuroendocrine studies utilizing 5-HT probes, are highlighted. Several important caveats, including the challenge of quantifying "suicidality" and "aggression" in reliable and valid ways, should be considered in interpreting the results of clinical studies of 5-HT and suicide and aggression.

Language: en