Antidepressants Do Not Increase Risk for Suicide Attempts

Results from randomized, controlled studies linking antidepressant use with increased risk for suicidality in young depressed patients have triggered warnings about antidepressant prescribing and have altered patterns of use. However, these studies were short term, enrolled patients with limited comorbidity and suicide risk, and did not naturalistically compare suicidality risk in treated and untreated patients. The current researchers used a large U.S. insurance database to retrospectively determine suicide attempt rates in 109,447 depressed patients treated with antidepressants (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, serotonin–norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors, tricyclic antidepressants, other types, and various combinations); 248,904 …