A functional connectivity between brain networks involved in cognitive control and self-referential thought processing differed between veterans with a history of suicide attempts and those with similar levels of psychiatric symptoms but no history of suicide attempts was noted by a group of scientists at VA and BU. This implies that this brain connection signal might be recognized prior to a suicide attempt, which could aid in the identification of persons at risk of suicide.

This study involved post-9/11 veterans who participated in a longitudinal study at the VA Boston Translational Research Centre for Traumatic Brain Injury and Stress Disorders (TRACTS). They discovered a group of veterans in this dataset who reported a suicide attempt during a time period of 1 to 2 year follow up but had not reported any suicide attempt in any of their previous evaluations. The scientists moreover found that the control group which exhibited similar posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and symptoms of depression did not report any suicide attempts.

This comparative study unveiled the fact that the brain’s cognitive control and self-referential processing networks might have been dysregulated in the suicide attempt group, and that this particular brain marker might be a unique suicide-specific risk factor.

The researchers also discovered that connectivity of the right amygdala, a brain region crucial for fear learning and trauma, differed between the suicide attempt and control groups, but only after a suicide attempt was recorded.

This demonstrates that brain changes occur after a suicide attempt, which may be related to the pressures that preceded the suicide attempt or the trauma of the suicide attempt itself.

 (Source: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-05-brain-marker-indicating-future-suicide.html)