Loading...
In October 2003, the FDA issued an advisory about the risk for new or increased suicidal thoughts or attempts (but not completed suicides) in children and adolescents taking SSRIs; the advisory was upgraded to a black-box warning in 2005 and extended to young adults in 2007. To learn about long-term changes in depression treatment, a research group that conducted an early analysis on the topic (Am J Psychiatry 2007; 164:884) has now analyzed managed-care claims data for 1999–2007 on 643,313 depressed children (aged 5–18), young adults (aged 19–24), and adults (aged 25–89).
The rate of new depression diagnoses increased steadily in all groups from 1999 to 2004 (preadvisory period). Then, compared with projections based on preadvisory trends, …