HEALTH : New Brain Data on Suicide Found

Scientists have detected a new abnormality in the brains of suicide victims, a discovery that may lead to better ways of identifying and treating suicide-prone people, it was reported today.

Researchers from New York University and Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science compared the brain chemistry of 12 people who committed suicide and were not on psychiatric drugs with 12 people who died of other causes.

Researchers found suicide victims’ brain cells had between two and nine times the number of protein structures, called mu opioid receptors, as other people’s brain cells. The biggest difference was seen in areas of the brain involved with sensory and motor function.

The people who killed themselves also had 50% less of another type of opioid receptor, called delta, in several brain regions, including the area that governs memory.