Am J Psychiatry 1997; 154:1148-1150
Copyright © 1997 by American Psychiatric Association
Reduced frontal cortex inositol levels in postmortem brain of suicide victims and patients with bipolar disorder
H Shimon, G Agam, RH Belmaker, TM Hyde and JE Kleinman
Ministry of Health Mental Health Center, Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel.
OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to evaluate aspects of second messenger
function in the brain of suicide victims and patients with bipolar
disorder. METHOD: Inositol and its synthetic enzyme, inositol
monophosphatase, were measured in postmortem brain samples of 10 suicide
victims, eight patients with bipolar affective disorder, and 10 normal
comparison subjects. RESULTS: The frontal cortex inositol levels of the
suicide victims and the patients with bipolar disorder were significantly
less than those of the normal comparison group. No differences in
cerebellum or occipital cortex inositol levels were found among the three
groups. The groups also showed no differences in inositol monophosphatase
activity in any brain area. CONCLUSIONS: These results could suggest a
deficiency of second messenger precursor in patients with bipolar disorder
and suicide victims.
