Hair stress hormones in individuals with a recent suicide attempt experiencing a depressive episode

IF 4.2 2区医学 Q1 NEUROSCIENCES

Neurobiology of Stress Pub Date : 2026-01-01 Epub Date: 2025-12-02 DOI:10.1016/j.ynstr.2025.100776

Lejla Colic , Anna Karoline Seiffert , Lydia Bahlmann , Ani Zerekidze , Johanna Walther , Larissa McClain , Bianca Besteher , Fabricio Pereira , Mocrane Abbar , Martin Walter , Fabrice Jollant , Gerd Wagner

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Background

Stressful events and dysregulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA)- axis contribute to the risk of suicide attempt (SA) in persons in depressive episodes. Hair cortisol, cortisone and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) concentrations may serve as reliable indicators of HPA axis dysregulation prior to SA.

Methods

Participants (n = 75; mean age [standard deviation] = 30.0 [10.2] years; n = 49 [65 %] women; Jena site) comprised three groups: individuals with a history of SA approximately one month (SA; n = 22); individuals with a current depressive episode without SA history (CC; n = 31) and healthy individuals (HC; n = 22). SA was defined as self-initiated, potentially injurious behavior accompanied by some intent to die. Stress hormones were measured using LC-MS/MS protocol (days from sampling to analysis = 342 [171]) and logarithmic transformed. Group differences in hair stress hormones with hair segments representing time were tested using linear mixed models on a p < .05 threshold. Exploratory models further examined the effects of childhood abuse, frequency of SAs, suicide intent level and impulsiveness of the last SA of mean hormone levels, on a corrected p_corr< .012 threshold.

Results

There was a main effect of group for the DHEA-log (p = .02) and post-hoc tests indicated that SA group had higher DHEA compared to CC (p_corr = .01) and HC (p_corr = .08) in the peri-suicidal period. There were no significant (p < .05) interaction or group effects on cortisol-log and cortisone-log. Preliminary exploratory analyses showed that SA with multiple attempts had higher mean DHEA-log compared to SA with a single suicide attempt (p_uncorr = .05). Furthermore, there were positive associations between level of suicide intent and both mean cortisol-log (p_uncorr = .02) and mean cortisone-log (p_uncorr = .02). Childhood abuse and impulsiveness of the last SA were not related to hair stress hormones.

Conclusions

Individuals with a recent history of SA showed alterations in the DHEA hair levels. These results partially support dysregulation of the HPA axis as a biopsychosocial feature of SA. Future longitudinal and experimental studies should investigate whether hair HPA axis hormones can serve as markers of suicidal crisis and vulnerability.

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最近有自杀企图并经历抑郁发作的个体的毛发应激激素

背景：应激事件和下丘脑-垂体-肾上腺（HPA）轴的失调与抑郁症患者自杀企图（SA）的风险有关。毛发皮质醇、可的松和脱氢表雄酮（DHEA）浓度可作为SA前HPA轴失调的可靠指标。MethodsParticipants (n = 75;平均年龄(标准差) = 30.0(10.2)年;n = 49[65 %]女性;耶拿网站)由三组:个人历史的SA大约一个月(SA); n = 22);目前无SA病史的抑郁发作个体（CC, n = 31）和健康个体（HC, n = 22）。SA被定义为自我发起的，潜在的伤害行为，伴随着一些死亡的意图。采用LC-MS/MS方案测量应激激素（从取样到分析的天数 = 342[171]）并进行对数变换。毛发段代表时间的毛发应激激素的组间差异采用p上的线性混合模型 <； 进行检验。05年阈值。探索性模型进一步检验了童年虐待、SA频率、自杀意图水平和最后一次SA的冲动性对平均激素水平的影响，校正后的阈值为0.012。结果实验组DHEA-log有主效应（p = .02），事后检验表明，SA组在自杀期DHEA高于CC组（pcorr = .01）和HC组（pcorr = .08）。皮质醇-log和皮质醇-log之间没有显著的相互作用或组效应（p <； .05）。初步探索性分析显示，多次自杀未遂的SA比一次自杀未遂的SA有更高的平均DHEA-log （puncorr = .05）。此外，自杀意图水平与平均皮质醇-log （puncorr = .02）和平均皮质醇-log （puncorr = .02）之间存在正相关。最后一个SA的童年虐待和冲动与头发应激激素无关。结论近期有SA病史的个体表现出脱氢表雄酮毛发水平的改变。这些结果部分支持HPA轴失调作为SA的生物心理社会特征。未来的纵向和实验研究应该探讨头发HPA轴激素是否可以作为自杀危机和脆弱性的标志。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Neurobiology of Stress Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology-Biochemistry

CiteScore

9.40

自引率

4.00%

发文量

审稿时长

48 days

期刊介绍： Neurobiology of Stress is a multidisciplinary journal for the publication of original research and review articles on basic, translational and clinical research into stress and related disorders. It will focus on the impact of stress on the brain from cellular to behavioral functions and stress-related neuropsychiatric disorders (such as depression, trauma and anxiety). The translation of basic research findings into real-world applications will be a key aim of the journal. Basic, translational and clinical research on the following topics as they relate to stress will be covered: Molecular substrates and cell signaling, Genetics and epigenetics, Stress circuitry, Structural and physiological plasticity, Developmental Aspects, Laboratory models of stress, Neuroinflammation and pathology, Memory and Cognition, Motivational Processes, Fear and Anxiety, Stress-related neuropsychiatric disorders (including depression, PTSD, substance abuse), Neuropsychopharmacology.