Can optical coherence tomography findings be related with suicide attempt in bipolar disorder?

•The decrease in GCC volume and RNFL possibly involved in suicidal attempt.•The GCC and RNFL loss might be related with neurodegeneration in BPD1.•The RNFL global loss was correlated with suicide behavior paremeters. The aim was to investigate the relationship between OCT findings and suicidal behavior (SB) in patients with Bipolar Disorder type 1 (BPD1) in comparison to healthy controls. Forty five euthymic BPD1 patients with previous suicide attempts (BPD1+), 46 euthymic BPD1 patients without previous suicide attempts (BPD1-) and 63 healthy controls were included. The subjects were evaluated with Sociodemographic Data Form, SCID, Suicide Behaviors Questionnaire, Beck Depression Inventory, Young Mania Rating Scale and OCT. All OCT measures were lower in patients with BPD1 than healthy controls (p0.05), the superior RNFL and global RNFL values were found to be lower in the (BPD1+) than in the (BPD1-) (p = 0.037, p = 0.028, respectively). Global RNFL was found to significantly predict suicide risk in a multivariate logistic regression model (p = 0.024 Exp(B):0.930). Neurodegeneration might occur during the course of BPD1 and SB. Decreased RNFL may be important for neurodegeneration related to SB.