Objective: To evaluate whether people who have committed parasuicide have low serum cholesterol concentrations.
Design: Results of blood tests in subjects admitted to hospital for parasuicide compared with those of a control group of non-suicidal subjects; comparison in subgroup of parasuicide subjects of two sets of blood test results (one set from admission for parasuicide and the other from admission for some other illness).
Setting: General hospital, Ferrara, Italy.
Subjects: 331 parasuicide subjects aged 44 (SD 21) years (109 with two sets of blood test results) and 331 controls.
Main outcome measures: Serum cholesterol concentrations and possible association with parasuicide, considering sex, violence of method of parasuicide, and underlying psychiatric disorder.
Results: Lower serum cholesterol concentrations (4.96 (SD 1.16) mmol/l) were found in the parasuicide subjects than in the controls (5.43 (1.30); P < 0.001), regardless of sex and degree of violence of parasuicide method. Both men and women with two sets of blood test results had lower cholesterol concentrations after parasuicide. Linear regression analysis showed that the difference in cholesterol concentrations was significantly related to the length of time between the taking of the two sets of blood samples.
Conclusion: The study showed low cholesterol concentrations after parasuicide. This finding agrees with previous studies, which suggest an association between low cholesterol concentration and suicide.