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Suicidal ideation only weakly predicts attempted and completed suicide, and some patients never voice ideation before they attempt suicide. These investigators used a multistage research protocol to identify suicide risk biomarkers.
First, the researchers identified 246 genes differentially expressed during suicidal and nonsuicidal states in 9 bipolar patients participating in a longitudinal study. They next cross-matched these data with extant postmortem brain and genetic data from studies on suicide. The 41 identified genes involved stress, inflammation, and apoptosis pathways in the brain, and some were sensitive to clozapine, the only FDA-approved drug for suicidality. The biomarkers were reduced to 6 after an examination of blood sample…