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Suicide risk in patients with anxiety disorders: a meta-analysis of the FDA database
Arif Khan1, Robyn M Leventhal, Shirin Khan
1Northwest Clinical Research Center, 1900-116th Avenue NE 112, Bellevue, WA 98004, USA. arif@accessone.com
Background:
Previous reports of suicide risk in patients with anxiety disorders have been inconsistent.
Methods:
Using the FDA database, we assessed suicide and suicide attempt risk among patients, participating in recent clinical trials evaluating new anti-anxiety medications, with diagnosis of panic disorder (PD), social anxiety disorder or social phobia (SP), generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD).
Results:
Overall, among 20076 participating anxious patients, 12 committed suicide and 28 attempted suicide. The annual suicide risk rate was 193/100000 patients and annual suicide attempt risk was 1350/100000 patients.
Limitations:
Clinical trial data have limited applicability to clinical practice. Participants in clinical trials are a highly selected, nonrepresentative sample of the clinical population. A number of patients never complete clinical trials and thus data are based on a limited sub-sample. These trials were not primarily designed to assess suicide risk.
Conclusions:
Suicide risk in patients with anxiety disorders is higher than previously thought. Patients with anxiety disorders warrant explicit evaluation for suicide risk.