Impulsivity and aggression have been shown to be important behavioral correlates of suicide. Neurobiological and genetic studies, mostly focusing on the serotonergic system, have demonstrated that these behaviors not only have clinical implications in suicide but also play an important biological role in increasing suicide risk. It remains unclear, however, how impulsivity and aggression might mediate suicide risk. The first study presented here was carried out to investigate clinical, behavioral and psychosocial correlates of impulsivity in suicide completers. Impulsive suicides were characterized by a greater psychiatric comorbidity as well as increased levels of aggression, and were more likely to be affected by negative life events. In a separate study, the effect of genetic variants of the 5-HT1B gene on impulsive aggressive behaviors (IABs) in suicide, as well as their contribution to overall suicide risk, was investigated. One 5-HT1B promoter variant significantly influenced levels of aggressive behaviors in suicide completers, suggesting that aggression plays a role as an intermediate phenotype that increases propensity to suicide. Both studies highlight the importance of the role of IABs in mediating suicide at both clinical and biological levels.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.111928 |
| Date | January 2005 |
| Creators | Zouk, Hana. |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Science (Department of Human Genetics.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 002330998, proquestno: AAIMR24842, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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