Researchers have identified brain circuitry differences that might be associated with suicidal behavior in individuals with mood disorders. The study provides a promising lead toward tools that can predict which individuals are at the highest risk for suicide.
Suicide rates are rising steadily among young adults, especially those with mood disorders such as depression. More than half of individuals who are lost to suicide saw a health professional within the past 30 days, but they did not necessarily seek care for mood problems. Emergency departments and urgent care clinics might ask screening questions about mood and follow up depending on the patient’s answers if necessary. Yet suicide rates continue to rise.
«At present, we have very few tools to identify individuals who may be at high risk for suicide-related behavior,» said Scott Langenecker, professor of psychiatry at U of U Health and senior author on the study. «Right now, we go on self-report and clinician judgment. Those are good, but they’re not great.»
Previous studies have identified brain circuits associated with mood disorders: the cognitive control network (CCN), which is involved in executive function, problem-solving and impulsivity; the salience and emotional network (SEN), which is involved in emotion processing and regulation; and the default mode network (DMN), which is active when individuals are engaged in self-focused thought. However, these studies have focused primarily on depression.
«This is one of the first studies to try to understand brain mechanisms that may be relevant to suicide risk,» said Jonathan Stange, assistant professor of psychiatry at UIC and first author on the study.
The Psychological Medicine study used resting-state functional MRI (fMRI), which captured brain images while participants were rested and calm, to assess the connectivity of these circuits in 212 young adults at UIC and the University of Michigan.
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