High Serum Levels of IL-6 Are Associated with Suicide Attempt but Not with High Lethality Suicide Attempts: A Preliminary Case–Control Study

Abstract

Suicide attempts are an emerging health problem around the world. Increased levels of IL-6 have been associated with suicidal behavior. Therefore, the aims of this study were to evaluate the serum levels of IL-6 in individuals with suicide attempts and a comparison group and to associate the IL-6 levels with the lethality of the suicide attempt. Additionally, we associated the rs2228145 polymorphism of the IL6R gene with suicide attempts or with the IL-6 serum levels. Suicide attempts and their lethality were evaluated using the Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale. The serum concentrations of IL-6 were measured by the ELISA technique in individuals with suicide attempts and then compared to a control group. The rs2228145 polymorphism of the IL6R gene was analyzed by real-time polymerase chain reaction. We found elevated serum levels of IL-6 in the suicide attempt group when compared to the control group (F = 10.37, p = 0.002). However, we found no differences of the IL-6 levels between high and low lethality. The IL6R gene polymorphism rs2479409 was not associated with suicide attempts. Our data suggest that IL-6 serum is increased in individuals with suicide attempts.

Immune-Related Biomarkers and Suicidal Behaviors: A Meta-Analysis

“…IL-6 was higher in patients with SB versus HC ( Castillo-Avila et al, 2022 ;Conejero et al, 2019 ;Eidan et al, 2019 ;Fernandez-Sevillano et al, 2022 ;Gananca et al, 2021 ;Jiang et al, 2022 ;Nowak et al, 2019 ;Priya et al, 2016 ;Vai et al, 2021 ) (k = 9, SMD = 1.13, 95% CI = 0.51 to 1.82, p < 0.0001, I 2 = 86%, very large effect size, Fig. 4 B).…”

Potential links between brown adipose tissue, circadian dysregulation, and suicide risk

“…IL-6 is involved in the physiological homeostasis of neural tissue and in neuropsychiatric disorders (Rothaug et al, 2016;Khandaker et al, 2018). Furthermore, there is evidence that a higher serum level of IL-6 is associated with suicide behavior (González-Castro et al, 2021;Castillo-Avila et al, 2022).…”