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Mental Health, Alzheimer's, Dementia
Large Study Proves Antidepressants Lower Suicide
Risk for All Adults
National Institute of Mental Health funds study of
226,866 patients
July 6, 2007 - Another red flag turns green.
Antidepressants do not increase the risk of suicide in adults with
depression, as many had warned. An extremely large study of over 200,000
patients has found antidepressants actually lower the risk of suicide
attempts, even in the youngest adults age 18 to 25.
The study published in the July issue of the
American Journal of Psychiatry was funded by the National Institute of
Mental Health.
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The researchers analyzed medical data of 226,866
patients newly diagnosed with depression in 2003 or 2004 at the Veterans
Administration healthcare system. They compared risk of suicide in four
age groups (ages 18 to 25; 26 to 45; 46 to 65; and older than 65) before
and after treatment with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor
medications, also known as SSRI drugs.
All age groups of depressed patients who received
selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors -- the most commonly prescribed
antidepressant medication -- showed a significantly lower risk of
suicide attempt when compared to those who did not receive
antidepressant treatment.
Among 82,828 patients, there were 183 suicide
attempts before treatment with SSRI drugs and 102 suicide attempts after
treatment with SSRI drugs (a rate that fell from 221 to 123 per 100,000
after treatment).
"The risk of suicide attempt among depressed
patients treated with SSRI drugs was about one-third that of patients
who were not treated with an SSRI," said the lead author Robert Gibbons,
director of the Center for Health Statistics and professor of
biostatistics and psychiatry at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
"We would not expect a lower risk in this patient
population because patients treated with SSRIs are generally more
severely depressed and would have a higher risk of suicide attempt."
In 2004, the Food and Drug Administration issued a
black box warning suggesting that SSRI drugs increase the risk of
suicidal behavior in children and adolescents. An FDA advisory committee
recently recommended extending this black box warning to young adults.
Gibbons cautions that extending this warning to
young adults may further decrease antidepressant treatment of depression
and contribute to higher rates of suicide.
In previous research, Gibbons reported an inverse
relationship between antidepressant prescriptions and the rates of
suicide in children and adolescents.
Editors Notes:
Co-authors of the study include Kwan Hur and Dulal
Bhaumik, UIC Center for Health Statistics; C. Hendricks Brown,
University of South Florida; Sue Marcus, Mount Sinai School of Medicine;
and J. John Mann, Columbia University.
Funding for the study was provided by the National
Institute of Mental Health.
UIC ranks among the nation's top 50 universities in
federal research funding and is Chicago's largest university with 25,000
students, 12,000 faculty and staff, 15 colleges and the state's major
public medical center. A hallmark of the campus is the Great Cities
Commitment, through which UIC faculty, students and staff engage with
community, corporate, foundation and government partners in hundreds of
programs to improve the quality of life in metropolitan areas around the
world.
For more information about UIC, visit
www.uic.edu
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