Cortisol in violent suicidal behaviour: association with personality and monoaminergic activity

Psychometric properties and factor structure of the Temperament and Character Inventory-Revised (TCI-R) in a Croatian psychiatric outpatient sample

“…Finally, NS was significantly associated (albeit weakly) with suicidality but not depression, confirming its postulated unique role in suicidal behavior (46). Since NS reflects excessive anger and poor impulse control, it seems that high NS scores may distinguish a particular subgroup of at-risk subjects, those prone to more frequent and especially violent suicide attempts (48). The application of the TCI-R in clinical practice might help to reduce the prevalence of suicide behaviors by detecting subjects with a personality profile characterized by high HS and NS and low SD.…”

The Role of Alcohol and Steroid Hormones in Human Aggression

“…Alternatively, stress may increase alcohol intake that causes both cortisol levels and aggression to rise. The positive association between cortisol and aggression has also been related to an overactive hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) function revealed by excessive alcohol drinking (Buydens-Branchey and Branchey, 1992) and/or to over-sensitivity to stress produced by social factors (van Heeringen et al, 2000). The negative correlations between cortisol and aggression are supported by several earlier results (Bergman and Brismar, 1994b;McBurnett et al, 2000;Virkkunen 1985) and partly explained by the ability of cortisol to lower testosterone levels (Cumming et al, 1983).…”

“…Basal cortisol levels have been observed to correlate positively with aggression in control populations (Gerra et al, 1998;Westrin et al, 1998). Increased cortisol levels have also been found in men with violent and suicidal behavior (van Heeringen et al, 2000) and in alcoholic men with a history of aggressive behavior (Buydens-Branchey and Branchey, 1992). However, lower levels of cortisol have also been reported in abusive and suicidal alcoholics (Bergman and Brismar, 1994b), in men with aggressive and antisocial behavior Virkkunen, 1985), and in boys referred for disruptive behavior (McBurnett et al, 2000).…”

Suicide attempters: biological stressmarkers and adverse life events

“…Van Heeringen et al [37] compared 17 patients with a history of violent suicidal behaviour with 23 patients without a history of violent suicidal behaviour. They found evidence that HPAaxis overactivity and reduced norepinephrenic activity reflect the inability to adapt to stressful stimuli in association with violent suicidal behaviour.…”