Those suicide attempters that choose violent methods dramatically diminish the possibility of survival. Completed suicide using violent means, which appears common among first-time suicide attempters, was recently found to be more likely among T allele carriers in the three most common ABCB1SNPs, encoding for P-gp.

This study examined, for the first time, whether the ABCB1(C1236T, G2677T/A, C3435T) SNPs were associated with the use of violent means among survivors of a suicide attempt.

Suicide attempters (n=578, 87.4% women; of whom 16.6% committed a violent intent) were genotyped for ABCB1C1236T, G2677T/A, C3435T. The relations of the three genotypes and of the TTT haplotype with the use of a violent suicide method were evaluated separately. The impact of confounds on these variables was controlled.

A higher frequency (p=0.02) of suicide attempters using violent methods was found among those carrying the ABCB1haplotype (1236TT-2677TT-3435TT). Since gender and number of previous suicide attempts were identified as confounds, the relation was tested in the subset of women who were first-time attempters or second- and more-time attempters. The ABCB1 haplotype increased the risk more than three times in those women attempting a violent suicide for the first time (OR=3.6; CI95%:1.08-12.09; p=0.04).

The ABCB1haplotype (1236TT-2677TT-3435TT) was related to the use of a violent suicide attempt method. Genotyping for these three ABCB1SNPs may be helpful to detect people at risk of first suicide intents using violent methods.

FEDER/FSE-GOBEX Consejería Economía, Competitividad e Innovación IB13186 and PD10199.