Suicidality as a Possible Side Effect of Antidepressant Treatment.
PHYSICIANS RESPOND TO THE FDA PUBLIC HEALTH ADVISORY ON WORSENING DEPRESSION AND SUICIDALITY IN PATIENTS BEING TREATED WITH ANTIDEPRESSANTS: On March 22, 2004, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a health advisory informing the public that manufacturers of several popular antidepressants have been asked to include a warning statement on product labeling. This warning statement recommends that antidepressant-treated patients-both children and adults-should be closely monitored for worsening of depression or emergence of suicidal behavior. The full text of the advisory, along with supporting information and presentations from the February 2004 meeting on which this advisory was based, can be found on the FDA's Web site at http://www.fda.gov/cder/drug/antidepressants/default.htm. Recently, the CME Institute, as a service to its members-you, the readers of this journal-and Larry Culpepper, M.D., Editor in Chief of the Primary Care Companion, assembled a group of psychiatrists and primary care physicians to discuss the FDA advisory and advise clinicians how it will affect their treatment of depressed patients. Their discussion and recommendations appear here. Faculty affiliations and disclosures appear at the end of this Commentary.
Culpepper
Larry
L
Department of Family Medicine, Boston Medical Center, Boston, Mass.; the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, N.C.; the Department of Community and Family Medicine, Dartmouth Medical School, Hanover, N.H.; the Department of Medicine, Regenstrief Institute, Inc., and Indiana University, Indianapolis; the Department of Psychiatry, University of Florida, Gainesville; and the Department of Family Medicine, University of Michigan Medical Center, Ann Arbor.
Davidson
Jonathan R. T.
JR
Dietrich
Allen J.
AJ
Goodman
Wayne K.
WK
Kroenke
Kurt
K
Schwenk
Thomas L.
TL