Citation

Paribello P, Squassina A, Pisanu C, Meloni A, Dall'Acqua S, Sut S, Nasini S, Bertazzo A, Congiu D, Garzilli M, Guiso B, Suprani F, Pulcinelli V, Iaselli MN, Pinna I, Somaini G, Arru L, Corrias C, Pinna F, Carpiniello B, Comai S, Manchia M. Brain Sci. 2023; 13(4).

Copyright

(Copyright © 2023, Switzerland Molecular Diversity Preservation International (MDPI) AG)

DOI

10.3390/brainsci13040693

PMID

37190658

PMCID

PMC10137079

Abstract

Background and Objectives: Alterations in hot cognition and in the tryptophan metabolism through serotonin (5-HT) and kynurenine (KYN) pathways have been associated with an increased risk of suicidal behavior. Here, we aim at probing the association between Stroop test performances and tryptophan pathway components in a sample of individuals with bipolar disorder (BD).

MATERIALS AND METHODS: We explored the association between the Emotion Inhibition Subtask (EIS) performances of the Brief Assessment of Cognition for Affective Disorders (BAC-A) and plasmatic levels of 5-hydroxytriptophan (5-HTP), 5-HT, KYN, 3-hydroxykynurenine (3-HK), quinolinic acid (QA), and kynurenic acid (KYNA) among subjects reporting lifetime suicide ideation (LSI) vs. non-LSI and subjects reporting lifetime suicide attempts (LSA) vs. non-LSA.

RESULTS: In a sample of 45 subjects with BD, we found a statistically significant different performance for LSA vs. non-LSA in the color naming (CN) and neutral words (NW) EIS subtasks. There was a significant association between CN performances and plasma 5-HTP levels among LSI and LSA subjects but not among non-LSI or non-LSA.

CONCLUSIONS: In our sample, patients with LSA and LSI presented lower performances on some EIS subtasks compared to non-LSA and non-LSI. Moreover, we found an inverse correlation between plasma 5-HTP concentration and some EIS performances in LSA and LSI but not among non-LSA or non-LSI. This may represent an interesting avenue for future studies probing this complex association.

Language: en

Keywords

affective recognition; hot cognition; suicide lifetime attempts; tryptophan metabolism