Antidepressants May Not Raise Suicide Risk Among Youth

Antidepressant drugs such as Prozac do not raise suicide risk in young people, a new study says.

The finding should help reassure doctors about prescribing antidepressants to youngsters, said first author Robert Gibbons, a professor of medicine, health studies and psychiatry at the University of Chicago.

In 2004, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ordered a “black box warning” for Prozac (generic name fluoxetine) after data from 25 clinical trials suggested the medications increased the risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviors in children and young adults up to age 25.

But this analysis of data from 41 clinical trials involving a total of more than 9,000 patients identified no such link in either adults or children.

“I hope that the [black box] warnings will not prevent depressed children and adults from getting treatment for depression,” Gibbons said in a university news release.

Read more at http://news.health.com/2012/02/06/antidepressants-may-not-raise-suicide-...