Testosterone Estimation Among The Individuals With Attempted Self-Harm And It's Correlation With Underlying Psychosocial Illness

Background: Self-harm and suicide attempts are major public health concerns with multifactorial origin involving psychosocial and biological determinants. Sex hormones especially testosterone has been a contributing factor for mood regulation, cognition, and stress response. Dysregulation of serum testosterone levels may predispose vulnerable individuals to heightened psychiatric morbidity and maladaptive behaviours including self-harm. Objective: To estimate serum testosterone levels among in-patients admittedwith attempted self-harm and to correlate these levels with severity of underlying psychosocial illness. Methods: A cross-sectional observational study was conducted over 18 months at JSS Hospital, Mysuru. Adults (>18 years) admitted with suicide attempts were recruited into the study after inclusion and exclusion criteria along with informed consent. Clinical, psychiatric, and socio-demographic details were collected. Psychosocial illness was assessed using the General Health Questionnaire-6 (GHQ-6), Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-42 (DASS-42), and ICD-10 criteria. Serum testosterone was estimated in all the above individuals. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS, with comparisons of testosterone categories (low, normal, high) against psychosocial severity indices. Results: A total of 104 participants were studied. Testosterone levels were decreased in 26.9% of patients, elevated in 13.5%, and normal in 59.6%. Also, Individuals with decreased testosterone exhibited higher frequency of severe to extremely severe anxiety (23.5% and 28.6%), depression (32.0%), and stress (60.0%). Elevated testosterone was associated with comparatively lower severity scores, while normal testosterone showed a mixed distribution. Mean GHQ-6 and DASS-42 scores did not differ significantly across testosterone groups (p > 0.4 and p > 0.7). Conclusion: Decreased testosterone levels correlated with greater severity of anxiety, depression and stress among individuals with attempted self-harm, suggesting a potential role of testosterone dysregulation in the biological underpinnings of suicidal behaviour. Larger prospective studies are warranted to clarify our findings and evaluate the role of routine hormonal assessment in risk stratification and integrated management of self-harm