Citation

Fiori LM, Turecki G. Eur. Psychiatry 2010; 25(5): 287-290.

Affiliation

McGill Group for Suicide Studies, Douglas Mental Health University Institute, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.eurpsy.2009.12.013

PMID

20392610

Abstract

Despite strong evidence for a role of biological factors in the etiology and pathology of suicide, the study of traditional neurotransmitter systems has been able to explain only a small proportion of the neurobiology of what is now recognized as a complex genetic trait. The use of microarrays to simultaneously examine the expression levels of thousands of gene transcripts has vastly expanded our capacity to detect the involvement of additional genes and pathways in suicidality, and has opened many new avenues for the discovery of the biological underpinnings of suicide completion. This review examines microarray studies which have been used to identify genes displaying altered expression in suicide completers, and highlights some of the important methodological considerations and metabolic pathways which have emerged from these analyses.

Language: en