Citation

Izumi T, Kanehisa M, Terao T, Shiotsuki I, Shirahama M, Satoh M, Muronaga M, Kohno K, Hirakawa H, Etoh M, Matsukawa T. Front. Psychiatry 2022; 13: e1083739.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, Frontiers Media)

DOI

10.3389/fpsyt.2022.1083739

PMID

36590619

PMCID

PMC9802576

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Since our previous investigation on the effects of trace lithium, eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), and arachidonic acid (AA) on deliberate self-harm and suicide attempts in 2018, to our knowledge, no replication study has been conducted on this topic.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS: We increased 37 new patients and totally 234 patients were re-analyzed to further investigate the association of suicide-related behaviors with levels of trace lithium, EPA, DHA, and AA in a different way to avoid multicollinearity.

RESULTS: Higher lithium levels were significantly associated with fewer suicide attempts and deliberate self-harm, higher EPA levels were significantly associated with fewer deliberate self-harm, and higher AA levels were significantly associated with more deliberate self-harm.

DISCUSSION: Although the sample size was only slightly larger than the previous study, the present results were clearly different from the previous ones due to the use of different statistical analyses to avoid multicollinearity.

CONCLUSION: The present findings suggest that naturally absorbed lithium may protect against suicide and deliberate self-harm, while naturally absorbed EPA may protect against deliberate self-harm. However, naturally absorbed AA may be a risk factor for deliberate self-harm.

Language: en

Keywords

suicide attempt; arachidonic acid; deliberate self-harm; docosahexaenoic acid; eicosapentaenoic acid; lithium