Fig. 2: Salivary cortisol and mononuclear cell transcript levels among suicidal vs. healthy control adolescents.

The univariate ANOVA demonstrated significantly lower resting salivary cortisol levels as well as lower PBMC NR3C1 and higher FKBP5 and KITLG transcript levels among the 63 SY, compared with 69 HY controls (Fig. 2). Cortisol SY (n = 63) 2.6 ± 1.4 vs. HY (n = 69) 3.5 ± 1.9, F = 4.98,df = 1132, p = 0.027 a; NR3C1 SY (n = 63)0.65 ± 0.21, vs. HY (n = 69) 0.85 ± 0.46, F = 5.70 df = 1132 p = 0.018 b; FKBP5 SY (n = 63) 2.72 ± 1.35, vs. HY (n = 69) 1.85 ± 0.75, F = 5.68, df = 1132, p = 0.019 c. KITLG SY (n = 63) 1.83 ± 1.45vs. HY (n = 69) 0.69 ± 0.56, F = 9.74, df = 1132, p = 0.002 d. * = p ≤ 0.05, ** = p ≤ 0.01.