Antidepressant-Suicide Link In Youths Absent In New Analysis
Posted Feb 06 2012 5:50pm
In 2004, concerns about antidepressant drugs increasing suicidal thoughts and behaviors in young patients prompted the FDA to issue a rare “black box warning.” Now, a new analysis of clinical trial data finds that treatment with the antidepressant fluoxetine did not increase — or decrease — suicidality in children compared to placebo treatment.
An analysis built on data from 41 trials and more than 9,000 patients also found that two different popular antidepressant drugs were effective at reducing suicidal behavior and depressive symptoms in adult and geriatric patients. The findings are published online Feb. 6 in the journal Archives of General Psychiatry.
The failure to replicate the link between antidepressants and suicide should reassure doctors about prescribing these drugs to depressed patients, said first author Robert Gibbons, PhD, professor of medicine, health studies, and psychiatry at the University of Chicago Medicine.
In 2004, concerns about antidepressant drugs increasing suicidal thoughts and behaviors in young patients prompted the FDA to issue a rare “black box warning.” Now, a new analysis of clinical trial data finds that treatment with the antidepressant fluoxetine did not increase — or decrease — suicidality in children compared to placebo treatment.
An analysis built on data from 41 trials and more than 9,000 patients also found that two different popular antidepressant drugs were effective at reducing suicidal behavior and depressive symptoms in adult and geriatric patients. The findings are published online Feb. 6 in the journal Archives of General Psychiatry.
The failure to replicate the link between antidepressants and suicide should reassure doctors about prescribing these drugs to depressed patients, said first author Robert Gibbons, PhD, professor of medicine, health studies, and psychiatry at the University of Chicago Medicine.