Alexithymia, depression and serum lipids in suicide attempters.

Over the last decade several studies have discussed the association between serum cholesterol, depressive disorders and suicide. A specific psychological variable related to affect is alexithymia. Alexithymia has been linked to depression and suicidal behaviour. Concerning lipid levels there are several studies that suggest changes in serum lipid composition maybe related to depression and suicidal behaviour. In this study we examined the possible relationship between alexithymia, depression and serum lipids in suicide attempters. We studied 50 non-violent suicide attempters (drug overdosers) with a mean age of 35.0 (±12.2) years. Alexithymia was measured using the Shalling-Sifneos Personality Scale Revised (SSPS-R) and depression using the Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS). Serum lipids concentrations were determined by enzymatic method within 24h of hospital admission. For the statistical evaluation Spearman's rank correlation coefficients were used. The mean serum lipid levels were: total serum cholesterol (TC) 175.2 (±29.6) mg/dL, highdensity lipoprotein cholesterol (H-DLC) 47.08 (±13.1) mg/dL, low density lipoprotein cholesterol (L-DLC) 109.5 (±23.5) mg/dL and the mean serum triglycerides (TR) level was 89.4 (±39.1) mg/dL. The mean scores on the questionnaires were: SSPS-R 10.3 (±3.7), MADRS 33.5 (±5.9). There were significant correlations between: (a) SSPS-R score and MADRS score (r=0.439, p Language: en