The New York Times, "Study Finds Medication Raises Suicide Risks in Young Adults"

          In a long-awaited analysis, health officials reported yesterday that antidepressant medications appeared to increase significantly the risk of suicide attempts and related behaviors in adults under 25, while reducing such risks in older people. The analysis, the most comprehensive and rigorous to date, found that suicidal behavior of any kind was rare, and that people taking the medications were no more likely to kill themselves than those taking placebo pills. But adults under 25 taking the drugs were more than twice as likely as those on placebos to report a suicide attempt, or to prepare for one by, say, writing a suicide note. The report, which included more than a dozen medications, was compiled by the Food and Drug Administration and posted on its Web site.
          The findings are the latest chapter in a yearslong debate that has recently focused on children and adolescents. In 2004, after doing a similar analysis, the F.D.A. required drug makers to include on their labels prominent warnings that the drugs were associated with an increased risk of suicidal thinking and behavior in minors. The new study is likely to shift the same attention to young adults, experts said, and may encourage patient advocates who believe that antidepressants like Prozac have hidden dangers, and psychiatrists who insist that the medications are safe.
          FDA scientists looked at antidepressant drug trial data that included nearly 100,000 participants, about half of whom took the drugs. Every major antidepressant maker provided its data to the agency, which included trials for depression, as well as for other disorders, like anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorder. Comparing side-effect reports from all adults who took the drugs with those who took placebos, the agency found no significant differences in suicidal behavior. But when they broke down the data by age, the agency analysts found that those under 25 were 2.3 times more likely than those on placebos to report having acted on suicidal urges. The risk was the same whether the patients were taking newer drugs, like Prozac from Eli Lilly and Lexapro from Forest Pharmaceuticals, or older products, like imipramine.

Learn more about antidepressants and suicide risks.