Hearing different perspectives and questioning why suicide research isn't progressing as much as other fields - like cancer or infectious diseases - inspired her research, she said. Part of her interest in suicide research comes from volunteering with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and attending Out of the Darkness Walks - events that help raise awareness and provide support to people who have lost loved ones to suicide. What's more, in some cases, psychiatric medications can even increase suicide risk. Interestingly, in her research, Kulviwat found that some psychiatric medications used to help suicidal patients with issues like depression or anxiety, like Lexapro and benzodiazepines, don't strongly interact with claudin-5 - but some anti-inflammatory medications do. Kulviwat and other researchers hope that identifying a physiological process involved in suicide - that is, looking at suicide as not only a psychological issue - might help more accurately predict who is at risk than current methods and aid in developing more targeted pharmaceutical treatments for prevention. With suicide being such a major public health concern, Kulviwat's research joins a number of studies looking for biomarkers of suicide.Ī review of the research, published in 2021, found some potential biomarkers - including chemicals involved in the body's stress response or that interact with serotonin - but none of the studies looked at claudin-5. And there were an estimated 1.7 million attempts. In 2021, more than 48,000 people died from suicide. Though treatments for suicidal behavior exist, including psychotherapy and medications, suicide rates have mostly increased over the last 20 years. Can biomarkers be a new way to measure suicide risk?Īccording to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suicide risk is usually evaluated by looking at things like a history of depression or other mental illness, life circumstances such as adverse childhood events or job loss, and other subjective psychological factors - like impulsivity or a sense of hopelessness. The results suggest elevated levels of claudin-5 in the brain might serve as a biomarker of suicide risk. That means foreign agents in the blood can now get into functional areas of the brain, which can be neurotoxic, she said. It often indicates a user profile.īut Kulviwat found elevated levels of claudin-5 in other parts of the brain - in the neurons and microvessels - of those who died by suicide, indicating there was a breakdown of the BBB.
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