Antidepressants and youth suicide in New York City, 1999-2002.
OBJECTIVE
To determine the proportion of youth suicides in New York City from 1999 to 2002 in which antidepressants were detected at autopsy.


METHODS
This is a medical examiner surveillance study of suicides in New York City among those younger than 18 years of age. The outcome measure is serum toxicology for antidepressants.


RESULTS
From 1999 through 2002, there were 41 individuals younger than 18 years of age among residents of New York City who committed suicide. Thirty-six (87.8%) had a serum toxicological analysis and an injury death interval of 3 days or less. There was one (2.8%) suicide in which both bupropion and sertraline were detected at the time of autopsy. Antidepressants were not detected in any of the other youth suicides.


CONCLUSIONS
The detection of antidepressants at autopsy was quite rare in youth suicides in New York City from 1999 to 2002.
Leon
Andrew C
AC
Department of Psychiatry, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, NY 10021, USA. acleon@med.cornell.edu
Marzuk
Peter M
PM
Tardiff
Kenneth
K
Bucciarelli
Angela
A
Markham Piper
Tinka
T
Galea
Sandro
S
D000293:Adolescent; D000928:Antidepressive Agents / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D002648:Child; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000188:drug therapy*; D004358:Drug Therapy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D009519:New York City / Q000453:epidemiology; D013405:Suicide / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*
D000928:Antidepressive Agents