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History of suicide attempts associated with the thinning right superior temporal gyrus among individuals with schizophrenia

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Abstract

Individuals with schizophrenia have higher rates of suicide attempts than the general population. Specific cortical abnormalities (e.g., the cortical surface area and thickness) may be associated with a history of suicide attempts. We recruited 74 individuals with schizophrenia (37 suicide attempters were individually matched with 37 non-attempters on age, sex, phase of illness, and study center) and 37 healthy volunteers. The cortical surface area and thickness data were extracted from structural MRI and compared between the groups. Suicide attempters showed significantly smaller surface areas in the whole brain (p = .028, Cohen’s d = -0.54) than non-attempters. No association was found between the cortical surface area of individual brain regions and a history of suicide attempts. The mean cortical thickness did not differ significantly between the groups; however, suicide attempters demonstrated a thinner cortex in the right superior temporal gyrus (p < .001, q = 0.037, Cohen’s d = -0.88). These findings indicate that a history of suicide attempts among individuals with schizophrenia is associated with a reduction in the global cortical surface area and specific cortical thinning of the right superior temporal gyrus. The morphometric alteration of the right superior temporal gyrus may represent a biomarker of suicidal behavior in individuals with schizophrenia.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Peking University HuiLongGuan Clinical Medical School, Beijing HuiLongGuan Hospital, Beijing, People’s Republic of China

    Yi Yin, Jinghui Tong, Junchao Huang, Baopeng Tian, Song Chen, Shuping Tan, Zhiren Wang, Fude Yang, Yongsheng Tong, Fengmei Fan & Yunlong Tan

  2. Beijing Suicide Research and Prevention Center, WHO Collaborating Center for Research and Training in Suicide Prevention, Beijing, China

    Yongsheng Tong

  3. Department of Psychiatry, Maryland Psychiatric Research Center, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, USA

    Peter Kochunov & L. Elliot Hong

  4. Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA

    Neda Jahanshad

  5. Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA

    Chiang-Shan R. Li

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  1. Yi Yin
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Contributions

Author contributions included conception and study design (Y. Tan and L.E. Hong), data collection or acquisition (J. Tong, J. Huang, and S. Chen), statistical analysis (Y. Yin, F. Fan), interpretation of results (Y. Yin, Y. Tan), drafting the manuscript work (Y. Yin, Y. Tan), revising it critically for important intellectual content (B. Tian, S. Tan, Z. Wang, F. Yang, Y. Tong, P. Kochunov, N. Jahanshad, C. R. Li, and L. E. Hong) and approval of final version to be published and agreement to be accountable for the integrity and accuracy of all aspects of the work (All authors).

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Correspondence to Yunlong Tan.

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Funding sources

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Y. Tan, 81761128021, 81771452), Beijing Natural Science Foundation (Y. Tan, 7151005), the National Institutes of Health (L. E. Hong, R01MH112180). Funders have no roles in data analysis, interpretation of the findings, or decision to publish the findings.

The authors assert that all procedures contributing to this work comply with the ethical standards of the relevant national and institutional committees on human experimentation and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2008. The authors assert that all procedures contributing to this work comply with the ethical standards of the relevant national and institutional guides on the care and use of laboratory animals.

Conflict of interest

Dr. Hong has received or is planning to receive research funding or consulting fees from Mitsubishi, Your Energy Systems LLC, Neuralstem, Taisho, Heptares, Pfizer, Sound Pharma, Luye Pharma, Takeda, and Regeneron. None was involved in the design, analysis, or outcomes of the study. Other authors declare that the research was conducted without any relationships that could be interpreted as a potential conflict of interest or financial conflict.

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Yin, Y., Tong, J., Huang, J. et al. History of suicide attempts associated with the thinning right superior temporal gyrus among individuals with schizophrenia. Brain Imaging and Behavior 16, 1893–1901 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11682-021-00624-3

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