Citation

Vevera J. Cas. Lek. Cesk. 2006; 145(2): 118-22; discussion 123-5.

Vernacular Title

Cholesterol, naisili a sebevrazednost--pribeh plny omylu.

Affiliation

Psychiatricka klinika 1. LF UK a VFN, Praha. janvevera@centrum.cz

Copyright

(Copyright © 2006, Lekarska Spolecnost)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

16521400

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Studies examining the associations between psychiatric disorders, violence, suicidality and lowering cholesterol levels bring contradictive results. A biological mechanism for this relation is offered by the Engelberg's theory. The aim of our study is to review all biological studies, trying to test this hypothesis. METHODS AND RESULTS: The Engelberg's theory was cited in 207 articles indexed in the Web of Science - 31.7 2005. Five other articles, not citing the theory but closely related to this topic were also included into the review. Only 20 biological studies examining the hypothesis were found, and only 7 of them supported it. Further we demonstrate that because of selection bias, association studies cannot be used to test this hypothesis. Interestingly from 43 associative studies published in psychiatric journals, 77% findings supported the Engelberg theory while studies demonstrating the opposite results are published mostly in journals targeted to internal medicine- from 11 papers 82% publicatitions did not supported the theory. CONCLUSIONS: Though the evidenced based knowledge is wildly accessible, outdated hypothesis is used to explain controversial results.