SynthesisFrontiers in psychiatry2025
Cortisol levels and depression suicide risk: a combined exploration of meta-analysis and case-control study.
Synthesis in Frontiers in psychiatry, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed.
- Suicide mortality in metabolic dysfunction-associated liver diseases: a nationwide cohort study.Annals of medicine · 2026Article
- Science with Seymour Levine: on glucocorticoid action from birth to senescence.Neurobiology of stress · 2026Article
- Hair stress hormones in individuals with a recent suicide attempt experiencing a depressive episode.Neurobiology of stress · 2026Article
- Ceramides and neuroinflammation as immunometabolic drivers and biomarkers of major depressive disorder, treatment-resistant depression, and suicidal vulnerability.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2026Review
- Sex differences in associations between hair glucocorticoids and internalizing symptoms in adolescents.Comprehensive psychoneuroendocrinology · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
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 case-control 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 meta-analysis 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. Systematic Review Registration: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/view/CRD42024609538
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