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Recently, several studies have found — and the FDA has issued a warning about — a link between antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) and risk for suicide (NEJM JW Psychiatry Aug 4 2010; and Sep 3 2010). To examine the relationship of all documented suicide-related behaviors (SRBs) starting 1 year before and after AED prescription, investigators used the national Veterans Health Administration database to analyze SRBs in all 90,263 veterans age 65 or older who received a new prescription for AED monotherapy during a 4-year period (mean age, 75; 97% male).
The most common AED was gabapentin (76.2% of participants); less than 0.1% received lamotrigine. There were 84 SRB events in 74 individuals the year before AED prescription and 106 SRBs in 92 individua…