engleski

Neurobiology of suicidal behaviour

Suicide is a major social and public health problem, one of the leading causes of death, a major complication of the different psychiatric disorders that can evoke great suffering in patients and their families, and carries a financial burden on society as a whole. However, most of the psychiatric patients never attempt suicide, indicating that besides psychiatric diagnoses, other multiple socio-cultural, environmental, biological and genetic factors are important risk factors for suicide. Suicidal behavior and suicide are frequently associated with different psychiatric disorders and personality traits. The biological and genetic contributions to suicide are still not completely understood, and the heterogeneity of the underlying neurobiology makes such investigations particularly difficult. Molecular basis of suicidal behavior is assumed to involve the changes in different neurotransmitter and neuroendocrine systems (primarily in the serotonergic and noradrenergic systems, the activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA) activity, and in the neurotrophic factors, such as brain derived neurotropic factor (BDNF), and cholesterol). Therefore, the research of the biological and genetic risk factors of suicide, which is a major and the most dramatic consequence of suicidal behavior, should be linked to biological characteristics of suicide, in order to find biomarkers that could be used as a predictors of suicidal behavior.

suicidal behaviour ; suicide ; Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, depression, alcoholism, neurobiology, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, noradrenaline, dopamine, serotonin, war veterans, biological markers, platelet serotonin, platelet monoamine oxidase, plasma cortisol, plasma dopamine beta hydroxylase ; gene polymorphisms

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