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Abstract
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There are >48,000 deaths due to suicide in the United States based on the CDC 2021 report,1
and suicidal risk in vulnerable subjects is a concern.2
American Journal of Medicine has previously published articles on suicide by poisoning and the need to understand the psychosocial factors to prevent suicides. We like to highlight the impact of recent discoveries on the potential interaction between psychosocial factors and genetic risk variants in suicide.
A recent meta-analysis of genome wide association studies (GWAS) which comprise 22 cohorts of different ethnicities (43,871 suicide attempt cases and 915,025 controls) has identified several novel genetic loci (e.g. DRD2 and SLC6A9) which may increase the risk of suicide attempt. Interestingly, the authors identified not only gene loci (e.g. depression) that are expectedly linked to suicide but also found genetic overlap with other conditions and lifestyle factors (e.g. attention deficit hyperactive disorder, smoking, risk tolerance). Drug target enrichment analyses demonstrated an association between suicide risk and targets of antipsychotic and antidepressant drug classes.
In another report, investigators identified an intergenic locus on chromosome 7, (implicated in risk-taking behaviour, smoking, and insomnia) which contributed more strongly to suicide attempt than other phenotypes, and the overlap between suicide attempt with known risk factors was not modulated by psychiatric conditions. Thus, gene-lifestyle interactions are important considerations and may help identify those at higher risk.
Language: en |