Forensic Science International
Volume 199, Issue 1 , Pages 15-17, 15 June 2010

May Toxoplasma gondii increase suicide attempt-preliminary results in Turkish subjects?

  • Fatih Yagmur

      Affiliations

    • Erciyes University, Medical Faculty, Department of Forensic Medicine, Turkey
    • ,
  • Suleyman Yazar

      Affiliations

    • Erciyes University, Medical Faculty, Department of Parasitology, Turkey
    • Corresponding Author InformationCorresponding author. Tel.: +90 352 4374937x23401; fax: +90 352 4375285.
    • ,
  • Hanife Ozcan Temel

      Affiliations

    • Erciyes University, Medical Faculty, Department of Parasitology, Turkey
    • ,
  • Mustafa Cavusoglu

      Affiliations

    • Kayseri Training and Research Hospital, Emergency Department, 38039 Kayseri, Turkey

Received 14 May 2009; received in revised form 10 December 2009; accepted 16 February 2010. published online 11 March 2010.

Abstract 

Suicide attempts are one of the risk factors of suicide. Possible mechanisms by which Toxoplasma gondii may affect human behavior and it may also cause humans to attempt suicide. The aim of this study is to find out whether or not T. gondii is one of the reasons in suicide attempts. We investigated the sero-positivity level for anti-Toxoplasma IgG and IgM antibodies by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in subjects who have attempted to suicide to find out whether there is a probable relationship between T. gondii and suicide attempts. In our study, we selected 200 cases of suicide attempts and 200 healthy volunteers. The sero-positivity level for anti-Toxoplasma IgG antibodies among suicide attempts (41%) was significantly higher than the control group (28%). This signifies that there might be a causal relationship between toxoplasmosis and the etiology of suicide attempt.

Keywords: Suicide attempt, Toxoplasma gondii, ELISA

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PII: S0379-0738(10)00076-9

doi:10.1016/j.forsciint.2010.02.020

Forensic Science International
Volume 199, Issue 1 , Pages 15-17, 15 June 2010

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