Structural brain alterations associated with suicidal thoughts and behaviors in young people: results from 21 international studies from the ENIGMA Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviours consortium

Funder: MQ Brighter Futures Award MQBFC/2 and the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health under Award Number R01MH117601. National Suicide Prevention Research Fund, managed by Suicide Prevention Australia
Funder: MQ Brighter Futures Award MQBFC/2. Interdisziplinäres Zentrum für Klinische Forschung, UKJ
Funder: Italian Ministry of Health grant RC17-18-19-20-21/A
Funder: Instituto de Salud Carlos III through the projects PI14/00639, PI14/00918 and PI17/01056 (Co-funded by European Regional Development Fund/European Social Fund "Investing in your future") and Fundación Instituto de Investigación Marqués de Valdecilla (NCT0235832 and NCT02534363)
Funder: National Institute of Mental Health (K23MH090421), the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression, the University of Minnesota Graduate School, the Minnesota Medical Foundation, and the Biotechnology Research Center (P41 RR008079 to the Center for Magnetic Resonance Research), University of Minnesota, and the Deborah E. Powell Center for Women’s Health Seed Grant, University of Minnesota
Funder: Medical Leader Foundation of Yunnan Province (L2019011) and Famous Doctors Project of Yunnan Province Plan (YNWR-MY-2018-041)
Funder: CJ Martin Fellowship (NHMRC app 1161356). “Investissements d’avenir” ANR-10-IAIHU-06
Funder: German Research Foundation (DFG, grant FOR2107-DA1151/5-1 and DA1151/5-2 to UD, and DFG grants HA7070/2-2, HA7070/3, HA7070/4 to TH)
Funder: Australian National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NHMRC) Project Grants 1024570 NHMRC Career Development Fellowships (1061757)
Funder: Medical Faculty Münster, Innovative Medizinische Forschung (Grant IMF KO 1218 06)
Funder: Australian National Medical and Health Research Council (Program Grant 1037196 and Investigator Grant 1177991 to PBM, Project Grant 1066177 to JMF), the Lansdowne Foundation, Good Talk and the Keith Pettigrew Family Bequest (PM) Janette Mary O’Neil Research Fellowship. IHG is supported in part by R37MH101495
Funder: Australian National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NHMRC) Project Grants 1064643 (principal investigator, BJH) NHMRC Career Development Fellowships (1124472)
Funder: National Institute of Mental Health (K01MH106805). Klingenstein Third Generation Foundation, the National Institute of Mental Health (K01MH117442), the Stanford Maternal Child Health Research Institute, and the Stanford Center for Cognitive and Neurobiological Imaging. TCH receives partial support from the Ray and Dagmar Dolby Family Fund
Funder: German Research Foundation (DFG, grant FOR2107-JA 1890/7-1 and JA 1890/7-2 to AJ, and DFG, grant FOR2107-KI588/14-1 and FOR2107-KI588/14-2 to TK)
Funder: NIAAA (K01AA027573, R21AA027884) and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention
Funder: National Institute of Mental Health (R01-MH103291)
Funder: National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) R21AT009173 and R61AT009864 National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (CTSI), National Institutes of Health, through UCSF-CTSI UL1TR001872 American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) SRG-1-141-18 UCSF Research Evaluation and Allocation Committee (REAC) and J. Jacobson Fund to TTY; by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) R01MH085734 and the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation (formerly NARSAD)
Funder: MQ Brighter Futures Award MQBFC/2 R61MH111929RC1MH088366, R01MH070902, R01MH069747, American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, International Bipolar Foundation, Brain and Behavior Research Foundation, For the Love of Travis Foundation and Women’s Health Research at Yale
Funder: MQ Brighter Futures Award MQBFC/2 Social Safety and Resilience programme of Leiden University
Funder: MQ Brighter Futures Award MQBFC/2 National Institute of Mental Health under Award Number R01MH117601 NHMRC Career Development Fellowship (1140764)
Identifying brain alterations associated with suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STBs) in young people is critical to understanding their development and improving early intervention and prevention. The ENIGMA Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviours (ENIGMA-STB) consortium analyzed neuroimaging data harmonized across sites to examine brain morphology associated with STBs in youth. We performed analyses in three separate stages, in samples ranging from most to least homogeneous in terms of suicide assessment instrument and mental disorder. First, in a sample of 577 young people with mood disorders, in which STBs were assessed with the Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS). Second, in a sample of young people with mood disorders, in which STB were assessed using different instruments, MRI metrics were compared among healthy controls without STBs (HC; N = 519), clinical controls with a mood disorder but without STBs (CC; N = 246) and young people with current suicidal ideation (N = 223). In separate analyses, MRI metrics were compared among HCs (N = 253), CCs (N = 217), and suicide attempters (N = 64). Third, in a larger transdiagnostic sample with various assessment instruments (HC = 606; CC = 419; Ideation = 289; HC = 253; CC = 432; Attempt=91). In the homogeneous C-SSRS sample, surface area of the frontal pole was lower in young people with mood disorders and a history of actual suicide attempts (N = 163) than those without a lifetime suicide attempt (N = 323; FDR-p = 0.035, Cohen's d = 0.34). No associations with suicidal ideation were found. When examining more heterogeneous samples, we did not observe significant associations. Lower frontal pole surface area may represent a vulnerability for a (non-interrupted and non-aborted) suicide attempt; however, more research is needed to understand the nature of its relationship to suicide risk.