Background

Patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) who attempt or complete suicide have elevated inflammation compared to nonsuicidal patients with MDD. However, greater severity of depression and the medical lethality of suicide attempts could account for such elevated inflammation in suicide attempters and suicide completers.

Methods

To clarify, we measured inflammatory markers in patients with MDD with and without high levels of suicidal ideation and in nondepressed controls (N = 124). Levels of suicidal ideation, depression severity, and recent suicide attempts were assessed by structured clinical interviews. A composite score including the inflammatory markers tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-6 (IL-6), interleukin-10 (IL-10), and C-reactive protein (CRP) was used as an inflammatory index. Analysis of covariance models were used to assess group differences with adjustments for age and gender.

Results

Patients with MDD and high suicidal ideation had significantly higher inflammatory index scores than both controls, F(1,53) = 18.08, partial η² = .25, P < .001, and patients with MDD and lower suicidal ideation F(1,44) = 7.59, partial η² = .15, P = .009. In contrast, patients with lower suicidal ideation were not significantly different from controls on the inflammatory index, F(1,63) = .52, partial η² = .01, P = .47. Follow-up analyses indicated that differences between patients with MDD and high versus lower suicidal ideation were independent of depression severity and recent suicide attempts.

Conclusions

Suicidal ideation may be uniquely associated with inflammation in depressed patients.