Yale Scientists Found A Way To Detect Suicide

Yale University researchers believe that they have found a marker in the human brain that could help avoid suicide.

The marker in question is called mGlurR5, and it is located in every region of the brain. It plays a key part in essential functions, like supporting memory and sleep. People who have the idea of taking their own life have a high level of this glutamate receptor, while those who do not have this thought have a normal level.

According to Irina Esterlis, senior author of this finding and associate professor of psychiatry, people who suffer from high blood pressure would want to lower it right away; however, that method was not available for PTSD.

Researchers of this study gathered a group of volunteers and PET scanned five different regions of their brains. The test subjects were divided into three groups; each has 29 members. The groups include people with depression disorder, PTSD patients, and perfectly healthy people.

In the two former groups, the glutamate receptors had the tendency to locate outside of the brain cells, while in healthy people, mGlurR5 is inside.

In the US, suicide is the second-leading reason for death among people between 15 to 43 years old. In 2017, the number of suicide cases was twice as much as those for homicide. Especially for those with PTSD, the numbers were even worse.

This research involved a small number of people, and it needs a lot more tests to verify its accuracy, but if things go according to scientists hope, we might have a more effective way to prevent people from taking their own life.

For now, there are only two types of drugs for PTSD; both of them are to treat depression. Patients have to take them for weeks or even months so that experts can determine if they work. This time period is just too long if the person does have the intention to suicide.

Esterlis said that in the future, they could test the level of mGluR5 to see if a person intended to take his or her own life.