[D66] Antidepressant Use More Than Doubles Risk of Suicide Attempts

[A.OUT]

https://www.madinamerica.com/2019/07/antidepressant-use-doubles-risk-suicide-attempts/

Antidepressant Use More Than Doubles Risk of Suicide Attempts

By
Peter Simons
July 9, 2019

madinamerica.com
2 min
View Original

Throughout the past two decades, studies have warned of increased
suicide rates in those taking antidepressants, especially in children
and adolescents. Researchers also documented missing data and other
problems in the clinical trials that may have obscured the risks of
taking these drugs.

However, a study in 2018 contradicted previous findings, suggesting a
decreased rate of suicide attempts. That study used a controversial
statistical analysis that goes against FDA regulations, and researchers
suggest that it could have biased their findings.

Now, a new article has reported on a direct re-test of the 2018 data,
using a more conventionally accepted statistical analysis. The research
was conducted by Michael P. Hengartner at the Zurich University of
Applied Sciences, Switzerland, and Martin Plöderl at the Paracelsus
Medical University, Salzburg, Austria. It was published in the journal
Psychotherapy & Psychosomatics.

Hengartner and Plöderl argue that the methods used by the previous
researchers were flawed and inappropriate for studying this problem. The
previous study used PEY (patient exposure years), which uses each year
of use as an individual data point. This is used when the risk is
presumed to be constant or cumulative (when more years of use makes it
more likely to have a side effect).

However, this is inappropriate for studying suicide risk, according to
Hengartner and Plöderl. Suicide risk is elevated immediately after
beginning a medication, not cumulatively or over the long-term.
Therefore, instead, researchers should use each person exposed to
antidepressants as a data point.  This is the standard used by the FDA,
which also considers PEY to be inappropriate for this type of study.

    “When hazards are not constant over time, PEY is inappropriate and
may obscure a true adverse drug effect, since (attempted) suicide mostly
occurs shortly after treatment initiation and not during continuation or
maintenance phases,” Hengartner and Plöderl write.

The researchers re-analyzed the data from the previous study, using
their simple technique. They assessed the number of people who were
exposed to antidepressants, and the number of people who attempted suicide.

They found that when they asked these simple questions, the data was
consistent with previous studies: rates of suicide attempts were 2.5
times higher in the people taking antidepressants than in those who were
given the placebo.

The raw numbers are even more striking: 206 suicide attempts in people
taking antidepressants, versus 28 suicide attempts in people taking placebo.

There were 37 deaths by suicide in the antidepressant group, and only 4
deaths by suicide in the placebo group.

This means that those who took a drug that ostensibly treats their
suicidal ideation were far more likely to attempt suicide and die by
suicide than those who took a fake pill that did nothing.

    According to the researchers, “The data presented herein suggest
that antidepressants significantly increase the suicide risk in adults
with major depression.”

Editor’s note: The headline and contents of this article have been
edited to fix a math error.

****

Hengartner, M. P., & Plöderl, M. (2019). Newer-generation
antidepressants and suicide risk in randomized controlled trials: A
re-analysis of the FDA database. Psychotherapy & Psychosomatics.
Published online June 24, 2019. doi: 10.1159/000501215 (Link)