Relationships between the molecular basis of impulsivity and suicidal behavior

Abstract The increase in suicides produced as a consequence of the economic brutal drift on middle and poor income families, in recent years, has accelerated the number of studies on the genetic mechanisms involved in these attitudes. In order to rigorously analyze them, we need to dispose of very well defined groups and dissect the right molecular pathways in search of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP), with special emphasis in neurotransmission pathways. In this study, we collected samples from suicidal victims and analyzed SNPs for the serotonin receptor HTR1B (rs130058) gene and the tryptophan hydroxylase (TPH1, rs1799913) gene. We have detected differences in the frequencies of men that are victims of suicide in relation to the control group for TPH1, rs1799913.