A Postmortem Study on the Weight and Morphology of Adrenal Glands in Victims of Suicide

Objective: Stress plays an important role in affecting adrenal gland anatomy and structure which may have connection with suicidal behaviour in depressed patients. The increase in adrenal cortical function is paralleled by increased adrenal weight and zone specific cortical width. Method: Adrenal glands from persons aged 20-85 years who died unexpectedly either from road traffic accident or committed suicide and died immediately, were obtained from mortuary of Medical college and Hospital, Kolkata, within 48 hours of death and without any gross sign of putrefaction. After overnight fixation, the adrenals were carefully cleaned of adherent fat, blotted dry, weighed on electronic weighing machine having the accuracy of ± 0.1gram. After proper fixation, paraffin blocks were prepared, sectioned and stained with haematoxylin and eosin. Widths of cortical zones were measured by means of a calibrated eyepiece micrometer under light microscope. Result: The weight of right and left, both adrenal glands are significantly higher for suicide group than the control group. The width of zona fasciculata of right and left, both adrenal glands are significantly higher for suicide group than the accident group. The total cortical width of right and left, both adrenal glands are significantly higher for suicide group than the accident group. Conclusion: Increased weight of adrenal glands in suicide victims is mainly due cortical hypertrophy with increased width of zona fasciculata.