Antidepressants & suicide: putting the risk in perspective.
Suicidal thoughts are a symptom of depression, and completed suicide is a tragic complication of depressive illness. Although pharmacotherapy is effective for the treatment of depression, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has ordered that all antidepressant medications carry a warning indicating that they are associated with an increased risk of suicidal thinking, feeling, and behavior in children, adolescents, and young adults. These warnings have received much attention in the general media and have caused much controversy and debate about the relative safety of these commonly used drugs and the appropriateness of their use, especially in younger patients. In this article, I will discuss this issue with the goal of putting the risk in perspective.
University of Pittsburgh, School of Medicine, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, PA 15213, USA. HowlandRH@upmc.edu
Robert H
RH
Howland
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D016907:Adverse Drug Reaction Reporting Systems; D000928:Antidepressive Agents / Q000009:adverse effects*; D002648:Child; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000451:nursing / Q000523:psychology; D017277:Drug Approval; D004348:Drug Labeling; D006801:Humans; D024802:Nurse's Role; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors; D013405:Suicide / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D014486:United States Food and Drug Administration; D000092864:Suicide Prevention
D000928:Antidepressive Agents