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Related Experiment Videos

Do antidepressants reduce suicide rates?

D J Safer1, J M Zito

  • 1Departments of Psychiatry and Pediatrics, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA. dsafer@jhmi.edu

Public Health
|February 24, 2007
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

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This study found no consistent evidence that declining suicide rates are linked to increased use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). The available data does not support a causal relationship between SSRI antidepressants and suicide completion rates.

Area of Science:

  • Psychiatry
  • Epidemiology
  • Pharmacology

Background:

  • Temporal declines in suicide rates have been anecdotally linked to increased selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressant use.
  • A causal relationship between SSRI antidepressants and suicide completion has been suggested by some investigators.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the epidemiological evidence for an association between completed suicide rates and SSRI utilization.
  • To determine if a broad array of data supports a consistent temporal relationship between suicide completion and SSRI use.

Main Methods:

  • Conducted a comprehensive literature search of suicide rates from 1980 onwards.
  • Utilized data from the World Health Organization and the US National Center for Health Statistics.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Analyzed temporal associations between suicide rates and SSRI utilization across various countries and age groups.

    • Main Results:

    • Suicide rates exhibit significant variation by age group and country.
    • In nearly half of surveyed countries, suicide rate declines predated SSRI introduction.
    • The observed association between declining suicide rates and increased SSRI use in the US (1990-1999) was absent in subsequent years (2000-2004).

    Conclusions:

    • Available ecological evidence does not support an inverse temporal relationship between completed suicide rates and SSRI utilization.
    • The findings challenge the hypothesis of a causal link between SSRI antidepressants and declining suicide rates.
    • Further research is needed to understand the complex factors influencing suicide rates.