Low testosterone levels in aging men may mediate the observed increase in suicide in this age group
-
Timothy R. Rice
and
Leo Sher
Abstract
This short communication suggests that there may be biological in addition to psychosocial reasons underlying the rise in suicide among older men. Testosterone, the major male sex hormone, has attracted interest as a putative biological mediator of suicide risk, but observational data have been mixed. Age stratification may reveal that high levels of testosterone in adolescents and young adults but low levels in the elderly may mediate suicide risk. A putative age-testosterone-suicide differential may be mediated by divergent central nervous system architecture between adolescents and the elderly. Whereas the prefrontal and prefontal-limbic connectivity underdevelopment observed in adolescents may render vulnerability to testosterone-mediated increases in impulsivity as a risk factor for suicide, declining function of dopaminergic striato-thalamic reward pathways in the aging cohort may render older men vulnerable to the loss of testosterone’s protective effects against anhedonia, thereby increasing suicide risk through a different biological pathway. Further research is needed regarding the role of hypotestosteronemia in elderly suicide.
Funding: No sources of support in the form of grants were used for this work.
References
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©2017 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
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- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- Childhood trauma, disability, hospital charges and prevention
- Review
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- Ethics in sexual behavior assessment and support for people with intellectual disability
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- Poetry writing and artistic ability in problem-based learning
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- Feldenkrais method and functionality in Parkinson’s disease: a randomized controlled clinical trial
- Lives of persons with disabilities in Cameroon after CRPD: voices of persons with disabilities in the Buea Municipality in Cameroon
- Access to employment in Kenya: the voices of persons with disabilities
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- Supporting professional development needs for early childhood teachers: an exploratory analysis of teacher perceptions of stress and challenging behavior
- Auditory processing abilities in amateur musicians
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- Short Communication
- Low testosterone levels in aging men may mediate the observed increase in suicide in this age group
