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An Association Between Low Levels of 5-HIAA and HVA in Cerebrospinal Fluid and Early Mortality in a Diagnostically Mixed Psychiatric Sample

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

William O. Faustman*
Affiliation:
Stanford/VA Mental Health Clinical Research Center Stanford University School of Medicine
David L. Ringo
Affiliation:
Stanford University School of Medicine
Kym F. Faull
Affiliation:
The Neuropsychiatric Institute and Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles
*
Stanford/VA Mental Health Clinical Research Center, Unit 4C2, Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, 3801 Miranda Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA

Abstract

We followed up a sample of psychiatric patients (diagnoses predominantly schizophrenia and depression) who had participated in in-patient studies of their CSF over the past 15 years. The status of 73 former patients was confirmed, of whom 12 had died. Seven of these patients died at age ⩽40, largely of suicide, homicide, or accidental causes. These seven patients had significantly lower CSF 5-HIAA and HVA than living control patients. There were significant direct correlations between age at death and both CSF 5-HIAA and HVA in the deceased patients. The results offer support for CSF monoamine metabolites relating to early death in a diagnostically diverse sample of psychiatric patients.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1993 

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