FDA Confirms Antidepressants Raise Children’s Suicide Risk
Two to 3 percent of children treated with antidepressants had suicidal thoughts or behavior as a result of the drugs, officials said yesterday based on the Food and Drug Administration’s most comprehensive analysis of past clinical trials of the widely used drugs.
In a sharp departure from a decade-old position, agency officials said the increase in suicidal tendencies was not a result of the children’s underlying depression but was caused by the medications themselves.
“Out of 100 patients treated, we may expect to see two to three patients [who] will experience increases in suicidality due to short-term treatment,” said Tarek A. Hammad, the FDA analyst who conducted the latest review. The increase, he said, “is beyond the suicidality as a result of the disease being treated.”
Dr. John Grohol is the CEO and founder of Psych Central. He is an author, researcher and expert in mental health online, and has been writing about online behavior, mental health and psychology issues -- as well as the intersection of technology and human behavior -- since 1992. Dr. Grohol sits on the editorial board of the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking and is a founding board member and treasurer of the Society for Participatory Medicine.Like this author?
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Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 15 Sep 2004
Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.
Grohol, J. (2004). FDA Confirms Antidepressants Raise Children’s Suicide Risk. Psych Central. Retrieved on May 25, 2012, from http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2004/09/15/fda-confirms-antidepressants-raise-childrens-suicide-risk/
