Connection between SSRIs and suicide comes under review

Five new studies will soon tackle the question: Do antidepressants, especially the popular SSRIs, cause suicidal thoughts and behaviors?

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) believes that findings will emerge in the next few years that will begin to demystify the connection between antidepressants and suicidality.

Balancing the risks and benefits of SSRIs, particularly for children and adolescents with depression, has emerged as a difficult call for physicians. On the one hand, studies show that the medications are helpful in treating moderate and severe depression among this group. But on the other, concerns about the drugs prompted the FDA to require their labels to display black-box warnings for the risk of suicide.

Though there were no suicides among the over 2,000 children in studies reviewed by the FDA, the rate of suicidal thinking or behavior, including actual attempted suicides, was 4% for those on the drugs compared with 2% for those on placebo.

“These new, multi-year projects will clarify the connection between SSRI use and suicidality,” said Thomas Insel, MD, NIMH Director. Continuing, he said, “They will help determine why and how SSRIs may trigger suicidal thinking and behavior in some people but not others, and may lead to new tools that will help us screen for those who are most vulnerable.”

SOURCES: Insel T. National Institute of Mental Health.

© Copyright 2007 Insight Journal Online Magazine.

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