Small risk of suicidality among adolescents taking antidepressants
November 2006A new study led by Dr Bernadka Dubicka of the School of Medicine’s Division of Psychiatry suggests a small but statistically significant increased risk of self-harm or suicidality among young people taking antidepressants.
The study, published in the November issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry, analysed suicide data on depressed children and adolescents aged 6-18 treated with antidepressants for 8-12 weeks.
It found that self-harm, suicidal thoughts or attempted suicide occurred in 4.8% of the sample, compared with just 3% of those given placebo. There were also a greater number of individual suicidal thoughts and attempts and self-harm incidents amongst those taking antidepressants, but these differences were not statistically significant.
Bernadka said: “The results of this meta-analysis must be seen as preliminary. Further studies are urgently required that are designed prospectively to measure suicidality, and do not exclude the most depressed suicidal children as most of the published trials do.
“In the meantime, doctors treating depressed children and adolescents with new-generation antidepressants should carefully monitor suicide risk. It is important to bear in mind however that juvenile depression is itself a strong risk factor, for both attempted and completed suicide.
“Moreover, the results of this meta-analysis indicate that the absolute risk of suicidal events in young people taking antidepressants is small, and there was no recorded case of completed suicide.”
