Brenda Cabrera-Mendoza, MD, PhD, postdoctoral associate in the Yale Department of Psychiatry, has been awarded a grant from MQ Mental Health Research for the study, “Stratification of Suicide Risk Through the Integration of Genetic and Clinical Factors.”
The project will advance the integration and prioritization of genetic and clinical factors associated with suicidal behaviors. Cabrera-Mendoza and her research team will identify the factors that significantly contribute to suicidal behaviors and determine whether these contributions differ among various ancestry groups. The expected results of the study will pave the way for new analytic approaches that integrate multiple factors to identify individuals at high risk of suicide.
According to her grant application:
“Suicidal behaviors, such as suicidal thoughts, suicide attempts, and death by suicide, are leading causes of death and disability worldwide, causing significant emotional and financial burdens on families and society. These behaviors have been on the rise over the past ten years, with an even greater increase after the COVID-19 pandemic. Addressing this urgent healthcare problem is more critical than ever. To effectively reduce the rates of suicidal behaviors, it is important to identify individuals at high risk and provide them with timely measures to prevent harmful consequences. Factors such as mental illnesses, social isolation, difficult experiences in childhood, sexual abuse, and other traumatic events can increase the risk of suicide.”
“However, simply screening individuals for these possible risk factors is not always effective in identifying high- risk individuals. There is consistent evidence that some individuals have a genetic predisposition to develop suicidal behaviors during their lifetime. Specifically, family-based studies have shown that 43% of the risk of suicide attempts or death by suicide and 36% of the risk of suicidal thoughts can be explained by genetic factors. This strongly supports the idea that suicidal behaviors result from a complex interaction between genetic predisposition and various non-genetic risk factors.”
“Combining different types of information is a key challenge in developing screening programs that can identify high suicide risk among individuals with different characteristics. To address this, we will apply advanced analytic techniques to clinical and genetic data from more than 1,000,000 individuals to develop effective algorithms to stratify the risk of suicidal behaviors in diverse population groups.”
Cabrera-Mendoza will be mentored by Dr. Renato Polimanti and Dr. Hilary Blumberg during this project. The grant is for $225,000 over three years.
Cabrera-Mendoza’s research focuses on genetic and epigenetic changes associated with suicidal behavior and substance use disorders.