Cortisol levels and depression suicide risk: a combined exploration of meta-analysis and case-control study

Zhaowei Jiang¹Liying Dong²Yajie Zhang¹Hongjing Mao³Fu-gang Luo^3*Ming-Fen Song^3*

• ¹Fourth Clinical Medical College of Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou, China
• ²Shaoxing No.7 People's Hospital, Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province, China
• ³Affiliated Mental Health Center & Hangzhou Seventh People's Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, China

Objective To evaluate the association between cortisol levels and suicide in patients with depression through a meta-analysis to provide an early warning for suicide prevention. Methods Databases including China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Weipu Database (VIP), Wanfang Database, PubMed, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, and Embase were searched to collect casecontrol studies, cohort studies, and cross-sectional studies investigating the relationship between cortisol levels and suicide in patients with depression. The meta-analysis was conducted using Stata 18.0. Meanwhile, we collected data from 131 participants to measure their cortisol levels, including Hair cortisol levels (HCL) were calculated for the 0-1 cm and 1-2 cm segments. Results The metaanalysis indicated that cortisol levels in depressed patients with suicidal behavior were significantly higher than healthy individuals (SMD = 0.350, 95% CI [0.003, 0.696]). However, the cortisol levels in patients with suicidal behavior were only slightly higher than those in patients without suicidal behavior, and the pooled effect size (SMD = 0.108, 95% CI [-0.151, 0.367]) was non-significant. The depression patients with suicidal behaviors had significantly lower levels of 0-1 cm HCL (3.46±1.92 ng/mg) than those in the depression patients without suicidal ideation (5.43±2.42 ng/mg) (P=0.003) and in the depression patients with suicidal ideation (5.04±2.30 ng/mg) (P=0.037). Similarly, 1-2 cm HCL was significantly lower in the depression with suicidal behavior group (3.21±1.47 ng/mg) than in the depression without suicidal ideation group (5.65±3.59 ng/mg) (P=0.009) and in the depression with suicidal ideation group (5.10±2.88 ng/mg) (P=0.050).Conclusion The study found that cortisol levels in patients with depression who exhibited suicidal behavior were higher than those in the healthy population. However, no significant difference in cortisol levels was observed between patients with depression and suicidal behavior and those without suicidal behavior. The experiment revealed that patients with depression and suicidal behavior had lower hair cortisol levels (HCL) than those depression without suicidal behavior.