Posted by Larry Hoover on September 16, 2004, at 11:03:30
In reply to Re: Suicide and Antidepressents, posted by Emme on September 16, 2004, at 8:53:19
> Larry Hoover actually read one of the reports not too long ago, not just articles in the media. He had some interesting things to say about it. I'm thinking of one particular thread in which he commented about the way reponses to the meds were measured and recorded. I just looked quickly and can't find it at the moment.
>
> IMHO, the primary issue is not so much whether some people experience increased suicidality on any of the SSRIs, but rather an issue of pharmacologic management. Patients should be monitored very closely when starting drugs in case such a reaction emerges. To assume *any* psychotropic medication is beign enough to prescribe without careful followup is dangerous.
>
> I must strenuously disagree that people who commit suicide are always violent by nature. Suicide is what happens when coping skills are outweighed by despair.I think this was the thread Em was talking about:
http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040825/msgs/382578.htmlHere are a few posts I made to Usenet on the subject. If you follow the threads, there can be substantial ad hominem or uncivil content. Just a warning.
Sometimes, a picture is worth more than a thousand words. Here's a link to a graph of US suicide rates over many years. Since the advent of SSRIs around 1990, and the huge increase in both the variety of and prescriptions for these drugs, suicide rates are falling. That does not mean, of course, that there is not a treatment-emergent or withdrawal-related increase in suicidal ideation or action. But that is not unique to SSRIs. It seems to be a characteristic of all antidepressants, with the exception of Remeron. Tricyclics may be worse than SSRIs, but nobody's running around screaming about pulling those off the market.
http://www.afsp.org/statistics/USA.htm
Lar
poster:Larry Hoover
thread:391220
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040915/msgs/391486.html