–March 6, 2007
A new Canadian report shows that drug regulatory agencies’ warnings of the heightened risk of suicides linked to some antidepressants were nearly all ignored by doctors who prescribed these medications.
Investigators performed a time-series analysis of new antidepressant drugs. The results were published on the web by the American Journal of Public Health.
The Advisories
Antidepressant suicide risks were brought to light in the summer of 2003 when the UK Committee on Safety of Medicine released a report cautioning doctors against prescribing Paxil to patients under the age 18.
In October 2003, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a similar drug advisory of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRSs)—a particular class of antidepressants—in young patients. One year later, the agency expanded the warnings to include all antidepressants for patients of all ages.
Health Canada issued a similar advisory in June 2004.
The Results
The team of researchers evaluated computerized prescription records to find trends in antidepressant prescription coverage that would indicate whether or not agency advisories were being taken seriously.
They found that of all five advisories of the increased risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviors linked to antidepressants, only the first warning resulted in change—new Paxil prescriptions for patients under 20 years of age dropped by 54 percent.
No other antidepressant prescription patterns altered, indicating that physicians ignored the risks.
Researchers believe this could be because the heightened warnings involving numerous antidepressants would have significantly restricted doctors’ ability to treat patients with depression.
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