Citation

Nishida N, Hata Y, Yoshida K, Kinoshita K. J. Neuropathol. Exp. Neurol. 2015; 74(5): 401-410.

Affiliation

From the Department of Legal Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Toyama (NN, YH, KK); and Department of Neurology, Toyama University Hospital (KY), Toyama, Japan.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, American Association of Neuropathologists, Publisher Lippincott Williams and Wilkins)

DOI

10.1097/NEN.0000000000000184

PMID

25853693

Abstract

To investigate the neuropathologic characteristics of poststroke depression (PSD) leading to suicide, we retrospectively selected deceased subjects who had been diagnosed as having early PSD. Cases were divided into subjects who had committed suicide and those who had not. Neuropathologic examinations, including immunohistochemistry, were conducted. Twenty-four subjects fulfilled criteria for early PSD; 11 of these had committed suicide, and the other 13 had not. Lesion type, size of stroke, and location of stroke were variable but did not differ significantly between the groups. Alzheimer disease-related pathology stages also did not differ between the groups. Argyrophilic grain disease was found in both the suicide group (6 of 11) and the nonsuicide group (2 of 13); there were 2 highly possible cases of early progressive supranuclear palsy in the suicide group. Together, argyrophilic grain disease and progressive supranuclear palsy were found significantly more frequently in suicide cases than in nonsuicide cases (p = 0.01). These data suggest that overlapping 4-repeat tauopathies, which include argyrophilic grain disease and progressive supranuclear palsy, might be an important aggravating factor of PSD that could lead to suicide. The presence of other neurodegenerative diseases does not preclude PSD because the prevalence of these diseases in older persons suggests that they might often occur concomitantly.

Language: en