Simple Blood Test Predicts Suicide with 80% Accuracy

A simple blood test may predict an individual’s risk for suicide, according to new research.

Zachary Kaminsky, assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Johns Hopkins, and colleagues, say they have identified a chemical alteration in a human gene that can indicate a person’s response to stress and anxiety—therefore, risk of suicidal thoughts or attempts.
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Studying 150 brain samples of deceased individuals, researchers measured levels of the gene SKA2, which dictates the brain’s response to stress hormones. The study subjects were a mix of healthy and mentally ill individuals, some of which had committed suicide.

Researchers noted that epigenetic alterations to the SKA2 gene in some of these individuals altered the way the gene operated by adding a group of chemicals called methyls.

Individuals who committed suicide had significantly lower levels of SKA2 and significantly higher levels of methyls than other participants.

Researchers also tested 3 sets of blood samples from more than 325 living participants, finding higher methyl and lower SKA2 levels in individuals with suicidal thoughts, or those that had attempted suicide.

A model analysis predicted whether a person had suicidal thoughts or tendencies with an 80% accuracy.

“We have found a gene that we think could be really important for consistently identifying a range of behaviors from suicidal thoughts to attempts to completions,” Kaminsky said. “We need to study this in a larger sample but we believe that we might be able to monitor the blood to identify those at risk of suicide.”

—Michael Potts

Guintivano J, Brown T, Newcomer A, et al. Identification and replication of a combined epigenetic and genetic biomarker predicting suicide and suicidal survivors. Am J Psychiatry. 2014 July 30 [epub ahead of print]. doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.2014.14010008