I was talking to a patient at the end of a visit when she opened the section of the paper she was carrying to show me a story. It was about the number of suicides in youth increasing as prescription rates for antidepressants decreased. Her comment was, “This is terrible. Since the FDA warning of suicide associated with antidepressants (SSRI type) parents won’t give them to their children.”

Last night I found the GoozNews. The archives go back to 1999 and its author Merrill Goozner is experienced and qualified to bring you his news from the world of medicine. He brings up some interesting points. The actual number of suicides is up (1985 in 2004 vs 1737 in 2003 out of a population of 61.45 or 61.47 million youth <19 y/o) but the direct association is not clear. CDC data for those 0-24 confirm the numbers but not the conclusion.

The death of anyone earlier than generally expected is a tragedy. It is one of the reasons I write this blog, to help identify and catalyze action you can take to prevent it.

The actual psychiatric journal article is in the GoozNews archives and is linked in the article Merrill wrote on 6 Sep 07. He also links the CDC conclusions. The action you can take is to make yourself familiar with the Hypothesis - less prescriptions from psychiatrists led to more suicides here and in the Netherlands - and then understand the stats actually (know the numbers not the percentages) and plan to discuss it with friends, family and write your papers editor to give your view of the situation and how it ws reported.

I want to know if there actually is an increase in suicide on SSRI antidepressants or is it a relative number (more kids equals more numbers with depression but the same % of the population with the problem. A larger number of cases in one population relative to the number in a smaller population equals a larger percentage difference but the same percentage relative to population numbers. In numbers this means if 10% of a population have a problem and the population is 10,000 then 1000 will have the problem. If the population increases to 11,000 the next year then 1100 would be expected to have the problem or 10% more. Ten percent seems like a large increase but it is a relative number. The real question in this example - Why does 10% of the population have this problem?) What is the reason so many of our youth commit suicide? Why are so many depressed? Is there another therapy proven effective in preventing this? Is the decrease in the rate of suicide a social trend since 1988 or is it due to better therapy?

What is your experience and/or your opinion. Take a look at the GoozNews for Sep 6 and leave me a comment.

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