Can Neutrophil Lymphocyte Ratio Predict the Likelihood of Suicide in Patients with Major Depression?

Background Neutrophil lymphocyte rate (NLR), platelet lymphocyte rate (PLR), and systemic immune inflammatory index (SIII) are rates obtained from hemogram parameters, and they are biomarkers used for the diagnoses of many diseases and their severity, and prediction of disease. In addition to the NLR, PLR, and SIII, platelets, plateletcrit (PCT), and platelet distribution width (PDW), which are platelet indices, are also investigated as biomarkers in many diseases. There are limited studies on the use of hemogram derivates (NLR, PLR, and SIII) in the diagnosis and severity determination of psychiatric disorders. Objectives In this study, we aimed to investigate the effect of biomarkers and the proportions of NLR, PLR, and SIII, which are obtained from hemogram parameters, to distinguish or predict the patients with major depression who are likely to commit suicide. Materials and methods In this retrospective study, the files of patients referred to an educational research emergency and psychiatric outpatient clinic between June 2017 and December 2017 were evaluated. Patients who had been referred to the emergency polyclinic because of suicide attempts and those with major depression diagnosed at a psychiatric clinic were evaluated in this study. All hemogram evaluations were performed using the Sysmex XT-2000i Automated Hematology Analyzer (GMI, MN, USA). Results Twenty-seven suicide patients and 26 major depression groups meeting the study acceptance criteria were included in the evaluation. Of these patients, 40 were female and 13 were male. There was no difference between the groups in terms of age, body mass index, and complete blood count (CBC) parameters such as white blood cell (WBC), neutrophil count, lymphocyte count, eosinophil count, monocyte count, platelet indices, and NLR, PLR, SIII, which were obtained from the hemogram. Conclusion We found that the neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio and other biomarkers obtained from hemograms were higher in patients with major depression than those who had suicide attempts, but we found that this was not statistically significant.