Suicide

Suicide

Approximately thirty thousand people die by suicide in the United States per year. (NIMH, 2007) The research and development of new medications for mental illnesses is rapid. For many reasons, people are hesitant to take or stop taking medications for mood disorders. The stigma placed on those who suffer from these type issues is great. Negative press or multiple reports of the negative effects of medications may be another reason for a person's resistance to take medication that might improve his quality of life. Many physicians are sometimes overly cautious when caring for children and may not prescribe medications that could be helpful. Parents also are reluctant to give their children medications for fear of causing them harm.

In the 1970's, a new class of medications known as Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors were introduced to the consumer. These medications were highly prescribed and many think were often prescribed when not needed. It is thought by some that these medications cause the side effects of suicidal tendencies while others believe that they make the individual feel better and more able to commit suicide. These ideas spread and doctors stopped prescribing these medications as often. "On October 15, 2004, the FDA has concluded that antidepressant medications increase the risk of suicidal thinking and behavior in children and adolescents with depression and other psychiatric disorders." (WebMD, 2007)

Drops in SSRI prescription rates may coincide with increases in youth suicides

A 2004 spike in suicide rates may have coincided with a drop in antidepressant prescriptions for youth, following warnings from U.S and European regulatory agencies that the medications might trigger suicidal thoughts.

NIMH grantees Robert Gibbons, Ph.D., University of Illinois at Chicago and J. John Mann, M.D., Columbia University, and colleagues, make a case for a possible link between changes in prescription patterns, regulatory warnings and suicide rates in the September, 2007 issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry.

Concerned that decreased use of antidepressants could potentially have a negative public health impact, they predicted more increases in suicides if current trends continue. However, they based much of their analysis on data from the Netherlands, since U.S. suicide rates for 2005 won't be available until later this year.

The researchers reported that SSRI (serotonin selective reuptake inhibitor) prescriptions for youth dropped by 22 percent in both the U.S. and the Netherlands during 2003-2004. In the Netherlands, youth suicides increased by 49 percent during 2003-2005. In the U.S., such rates increased by 14 percent in 2004 Ð'- the largest change since data collection began in l979.

The pattern of decreasing SSRI prescription rates coinciding with increasing suicide rates held regardless of age. In general, the older the age group, the less prescription rates dropped, up to age 60. For adults over 60, for whom antidepressant prescription rates continued to rise, suicide rates reached a record low in 2004.

In the fall of 2004, following months of public hearings and preliminary warnings linking antidepressants