LOW OR LOWERED CHOLESTEROL AND RISK OF DEATH FROM SUICIDE AND TRAUMA

For four decades, serum cholesterol has been intensively studied in relation to atherosclerosis, and it is now generally agreed that high cholesterol concentrations are causally related to coronary heart disease (CHD). However, recent evidence suggests that mortality from a variety of non-CHD causes is elevated in persons with low or lowered serum cholesterol. Because such relationships may offset the anticipated health benefits of long-term cholesterol reduction, it is of obvious importance to understand the physiologic changes occasioned by cholesterol modification, and to identify those changes having possibly deleterious effects on health. In this review, we focus on one potential negative consequence of cholesterol reduction, namely the unexplained association between low or lowered cholesterol and death from suicide, accident, or trauma (so-called nonillness mortality [NIM]). © 1993.