Lars Hakan Thorell
Linkoping University, Sweden
Title: Electrodermal hyporeactivity and suicidal propensity – Results from three studies of more than 2500 depressive patients in total
Biography
Biography: Lars Hakan Thorell
Abstract
Since 1987, several publications have revealed a strong relationship between electrodermal hyporeactivity and suicidal propensity in depression. A meta-analysis (Thorell, 2009) from ten smaller materials showed a very sensitivity (97 %) and very high negative predictive value (“raw specificity”) (93 %) for suicide from tests of electrodermal hyporeactivity. In a study of 783 depressed patients in the Weissenau hospital in Ravensburg (Thorell et al., 2013) these terms were 83 % and 98 %, respectively. In this study the follow-up period was much longer, several years.
The electrodermal hyporeactivity seems to be unrelated to the depth of depression, to genus and age between 18 – 65 years, to clinical results of antidepressive treatments and to levels of 5-HIAA in liquor. It seems also to remain in remission and be stable in later depressive episodes. The prevalence of hyporeactivity was particularly high in patients with bipolar disorders and the relationship was very high, especially in that group.
A third naturalistic study EUDOR-A of about 1 500 depressed patients tested by the test of Electrodermal Orienting Reactivity (EDOR) is still going on in 10 European countries and 15 psychiatric centers involving more than 50 co-researchers.