Fatty acid composition in postmortem brains of people who completed suicide

Abstract

Objective: Cholesterol levels have been reported to be lower in suicidal patients, and alterations in blood levels of polyunsaturated fatty acids have been found in people with depression. Given that the evidence for the link between lipid metabolism and psychopathology thus far has almost exclusively hinged on alterations of these variables in blood, this study aimed to address whether similar alterations in fatty acids would be evident in the brains of people who complete suicide.

Methods: Using gas chromatography, we measured 49 different fatty acids in the orbitofrontal cortex and the ventral prefrontal cortex of people who had completed suicide with (n = 16) and without (n = 23) major depression and in control subjects (n = 19) with no current psychopathology and whose cause of death was sudden.

Results: Comparisons of fatty acids between the 3 groups did not reveal significant differences.

Conclusion: Further research is required to better understand the link between fatty acids in the peripheral circulation and those in the central nervous system before determining whether fatty acids play a mediating role in suicidal behaviour.

Keywords: cholesterol; depression; fatty acids; frontal cortext; lipid metabolism; suicide.

Fig. 1: Relation between total fatty acids and cholesterol in the orbitofrontal cortex (BA 11) for all subjects (n = 58). Significant correlation: r = 0.657, p < 0.0005. BA = Brodmann's area.

Fig. 2: Relation between total fatty acids and cholesterol in the ventral prefrontal cortex (BA 47) for all subjects (n = 58). Significant correlation: r = 0.512, p < 0.0005. BA = Brodmann's area.