Hair cortisol level might be indicative for a 3PM approach towards suicide risk assessment in depression: comparative analysis of mentally stable and depressed individuals versus individuals after completing suicide.

"Declarations Ethics approvalAll procedures, including the collection and analysis of hair samples from control subjects, patients with MDD, and suicide completers, were approved by the Ethics Committee of the Hannover Medical School (MHH) in Hannover, Germany. Consent to participateControl subjects and depressed individuals provided written informed consent to the study protocol of the project GerontoTel before participation. Consent for publicationAfter reviewing the manuscript, the all authors approved its final version. Competing interestsThe authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose. AK is an editorial board member of the journal, but had no involvement in, influence over, or access to the details of the peer review process of this work. Competing interests The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose. AK is an editorial board member of the journal, but had no involvement in, influence over, or access to the details of the peer review process of this work."

"Funding Open access funding provided by University of Innsbruck and Medical University of Innsbruck. The authors declare that no funds, grants, or other support was received during the preparation of this manuscript. Open access funding is provided by the University of Innsbruck."