Title: Antidepressant medication prevents suicide in depression
Abstract: Isacsson G, Reutfors J, Papadopoulos FC, Ösby U, Ahlner J. Antidepressant medication prevents suicide in depression. Objective: Ecological studies have demonstrated a substantial decrease in suicide in parallel with an increasing use of antidepressants. To investigate on the individual level the hypothesis that antidepressant medication was a causal factor. Method: Data on the toxicological detection of antidepressants in 18 922 suicides in Sweden 1992–2003 were linked to registers of psychiatric hospitalization as well as registers with sociodemographic data. Results: The probability for the toxicological detection of an antidepressant was lowest in the non‐suicide controls, higher in suicides, and even higher in suicides that had been psychiatric in‐patients but excluding those who had been in‐patients for the treatment of depression. Conclusion: The finding that in‐patient care for depression did not increase the probability of the detection of antidepressants in suicides is difficult to explain other than by the assumption that a substantial number of depressed individuals were saved from suicide by postdischarge treatment with antidepressant medication.
Publication Year: 2010
Publication Date: 2010-04-09
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref', 'pubmed']
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 26
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