Aim: The aim of this study was to describe systematically recent studies that show the importance of cholesterol in psychopathology.
Methods: This study was a review. The following databases were searched for relevant published articles on human studies: MEDLINE, Web of Science, EBSCOhost Academic Search Complete, and Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection (papers from January 2012 to March 2016).
Results: Eighteen recent papers were selected, and thematic dimensions showing correlations between cholesterol and behavioral and psychopathological variables were depression, suicide, personality, and aggression.
Conclusion: This paper demonstrates that recent research corroborates the idea that cholesterol plays an important role in governing behavior and psychopathology in humans. Deepening the studies in this field could be a promising avenue for future research, with implications for treating people with behavior or mental health problems.
Keywords: Cholesterol; human behavior; psychopathology.