After the U.S. Government said antidepressant packets had to carry a warning about the increased risk of suicide, the number of attempted suicides increased
When health officials set out to warn the public of the increased risk of suicidal thoughts among young people taking antidepressants, their aim was to prevent self-harm.
But the move actually led to an increase in the number of suicide attempts, a new study has found.
The researchers believe this could be because it made doctors reluctant to prescribe the mediations meaning depressed children and teenagers went untreated.
‘In this case, we think we’re seeing the decreased use of the medication in kids who had appropriate use of the medications,’ said Stephen Soumerai, the study’s senior author from the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute in Boston.
Between 2003 and 2004 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued warnings that antidepressants were linked to an increased risk of suicidal thoughts in about one per cent of children and teens.
The agency required the warning to be printed on antidepressant drug labels in October 2004.
The warnings were expanded to include young adults in 2007.
Previous studies had found antidepressant use fell after the warnings were issued but that use of other treatments for depression, such as therapy, did not increase.
There was also a decline in the number of people being diagnosed with depression.
To look at how suicidal behaviour might have been affected, Dr Soumerai and his colleagues analysed data from 11 healthcare organisations that provide care to about 10 million people in 12 states.
They found antidepressant use decreased by 31 per cent among adolescents, about 24 per cent among young adults and about 15 per cent among adults after the warnings were issued.
At the same time, there were increases in the number of adolescents and young adults receiving medical attention for overdosing on psychiatric medicines, which the authors say is an accurate way to measure suicide attempts.
Those poisoning increased by about 22 per cent among adolescents and about 34 per cent among young adults after the warnings.
That translates to two additional poisoning per 100,000 adolescents and four more poisoning per 100,000 young adults, the researchers write.
There was no change in poisoning among adults, they found.
There was also no change in the number of suicides.
Dr Mark Olfson, a professor of psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center in New York, warned that poisoning from psychiatric drugs may not be an accurate representation of suicide attempts, however.
It is thought the warnings made doctors reluctant to prescribe the drugs, meaning people went untreated
‘Their analyses are undermined by the selection of psychotropic drug poisoning for suicide attempts because these events are only weakly associated with suicide,’ Dr Olfson, who was not involved with the study, said.
However, Dr Soumerai said poisonings were a better predictor of attempted suicide than other measures that are sometimes used, such as reports of self-harm.
The study ‘suggests that the warning had the intended effect (of reducing antidepressant prescribing for young people) but it remains an open question of whether the warnings were beneficial or not,’ Dr Olfson added.
The FDA also told Reuters Health ‘nothing indicates a need for change in the Boxed Warning on these drugs, which urges attention to patients starting treatment, which the FDA feels is still good advice.
‘The FDA has not tried to discourage use of antidepressant drugs in people who may benefit from them.
‘And, the current labelling and patient Medication Guides remind physicians and caregivers of the monitoring that is needed for patients taking these medications.’
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2662520/Warning-antidepressants-increase-risk-suicide-led-MORE-people-trying-lives.html#ixzz3585sLytj
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